Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, said on Tuesday that securing parliament’s permission to launch a major attack on Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq did not necessarily mean a military incursion was imminent.

”I sincerely wish that this motion will never be applied. Passage of this motion does not mean an immediate incursion will follow, but we will act at the right time and under the right conditions,” Erdogan told his AK Party in televised remarks. ”The sole target of a possible incursion is the terrorist organisation,” he said, referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), whose members use northern Iraq as a base from which to attack Turkey.