Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected the speculations that Ankara wants to wage war on Syria.

Prime Minister stated that the Turkish parliament’s mandate for military operations outside the country is aimed at boosting Turkey’s deterrent power.

“We have no intention of starting a war with Syria,” Erdogan said in a press conference with the visiting Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi in Ankara on Thursday evening.

Turkey is not a warmongering country while we have witnessed the consequences of warmongering policies near our borders in Iraq and Afghanistan, he added.

He noted that the cross-border mandate was meant to serve as an “active deterrent” in the face of the escalating spillover of violence into his country’s territories.

Earlier on Thursday, the Turkish parliament approved a motion authorizing military operations outside the country’s borders “when deemed necessary”.

The approval came after mortars fired from Syria killed five people in town of Akcakala, Southeastern Turkey, on October 3.

On October 4, Turkish artillery hit targets near Syria’s Tel Abyad border town for a second day.

Meantime, Damascus said it was investigating the mortar attack on Akcakale.

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