Turkey okays extended force deployment in Gulf of Aden

By Muhammet Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA

Turkey's parliament on Wednesday okayed the extension of Turkish forces serving in the Gulf of Aden, Somalia, and the Arabian Sea.

Parliament ratified a motion extending authorization of the deployment through Feb. 10, 2019.

Since it was first approved by parliament in 2008, the Prime Ministry motion for the deployment has been extended 10 times.

The Gulf of Aden -- near Yemen and close to the world's fourth-biggest chokepoint for oil transit, the Bab el-Mandab strait -- is a strategic energy route for Middle Eastern crude oil.