Turkey has launched Operation Peace Spring in north Syria on October 9. The Turkish offensive is part of Ankara's plan to clear its Syria-facing border area of the Daesh* terrorists and Kurdish militia, and create a so-called "safe zone" in the area.
"The lower chamber of the Czech parliament has condemned the Turkish military action in Syria as a violation of international law. All 147 lawmakers in presence voted in favour. Prime Minister Andrej Babis has been tasked with proposing to the European Union economic and political measures against Turkey to make it stop its military action," the parliament said in a statement.
The Czech Republic is among the countries which have already embargoed arms exports to Turkey. According to the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, Prague has supplied Turkey with an estimated $608 million worth of arms, or 1 percent of the total arms exports.
On Monday, the Czech Foreign Ministry summoned the Turkish ambassador in Prague to express severe concerns over Turkey's military operation.
The international community has been vocally critical about Ankara's operation, with a number of countries - including Turkey's and Russia's co-guarantor of the Syrian ceasefire, Iran, - calling upon Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to immediately stop the military action and withdraw troops from Syria. For Damascus, Operation Peace Spring amounts to a violation of Syria's territorial integrity. Moscow, in turn, has urged Ankara to refrain from actions that could create obstacles for settling the civil war in Syria, in its ninth year now.
*Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State/IS), a terrorist group banned in Russia and a wide number of other countries.
