The motion that Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu described as “I personally wrote parts of it, and read in its entirety” was approved by the parliament. Because it is laden with equivocal expressions, the Turkish public and media are speculating the justification for the motion and its potential consequences. There is considerable criticism of issuing a single motion to authorize the Turkish army to cross the border into Syria and Iraq — not specifying what are the threats requiring such a motion, not listing the countries where the Turkish troops might be sent to (it simply says, "to send the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) to foreign countries") and including an ambiguous expression that states, "To allow foreign soldiers to be stationed in Turkey for one year." But there is no doubt that the approval has endowed the government with ample space for maneuver.

Although Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz said not to expect immediate steps to emphasize that there was no urgency, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to be in a hurry "to impose a no-fly zone, set up safe havens on the Syrian side and decide on actors to manage this process."

Next week, the top two officials running the US campaign against the Islamic State (IS), John Allen, the special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State and Brett McGurk, deputy assistant secretary for Iraq and Iran, will be visiting Turkey.

Turkey, armed with generous parliamentary authority, is expected to bargain hard with its US partners. The Turkish side — which will demand a no-fly zone, raise the threat level of the increasing influence of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria and call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to be deposed — will have in its hands strong cards such as the Incirlik Air Base, sharing anti-IS intelligence and the role Turkey will play in the economic and political restructuring of Iraq and Syria.