Turkey to hand Bashiqa base to Baghdad as Iraq pledges to take full control of Sinjar

NEW YORK — Turkey will gradually hand over its Bashiqa-Zilkan military base to Iraq’s federal government, and Iraq will fully establish state authority in Sinjar and end the presence of “banned foreign armed elements” there, the two governments said after Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi met President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in New York.

“The two sides agreed to deepen cooperation in the security field,” their joint statement said. “In this context, they agreed to fully establish the authority of the Iraqi state in Sinjar and end the presence of banned foreign armed elements.” It did not name the groups or give a date. On Bashiqa it said: “Within the framework of the progress achieved by Iraq through security measures, Turkish forces will gradually hand over the Bashiqa-Zilkan camp to the Iraqi federal government, according to the agreed mechanism and timetable.” No start or completion date was published.

The armed presence in Sinjar that Ankara objects to is the PKK and groups affiliated with it, including the Yazidi-majority Sinjar Resistance Units. Baghdad and Erbil signed an agreement in October 2020 to remove them and restore state administration in Sinjar, the Yazidi homeland devastated by the Islamic State group in 2014, but it was never fully implemented. The spokesperson for the commander-in-chief said on Sept. 11 that talks were continuing with Turkey over the status of PKK members in Iraq following the group’s disarmament, including their return to Turkey or departure, and National Security Adviser Qasim al-Aboudi asked the U.S. chargé d’affaires on Tuesday for support for Sinjar’s reconstruction.

The agreement touches two demands armed factions have set as conditions for handing over their weapons. Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada listed the removal of the PKK from Iraqi territory and the withdrawal of Turkish forces from northern Iraq among its 10 conditions in August, and Kataib Hezbollah named the departure of Turkish forces among its three.

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack welcomed it on X. “History rarely announces its turning points; it stitches them quietly. Ankara returning Zilkan to Baghdad by agreed mechanism and timeline is one such thread: Iraqi sovereignty and Turkish security, both served,” he wrote.

The two sides also agreed to expand trade and investment, implement previously signed agreements immediately and accelerate joint projects, particularly the Development Road.

Turkey has kept forces in northern Iraq and the Kurdistan Region for decades, mainly for operations against the PKK. Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul in Nineveh, was set up during the war against the Islamic State group and reinforced in 2015, when Turkish troops trained Peshmerga and Sunni Arab forces there, and successive Iraqi governments objected to deployments made without federal approval. The two countries agreed in 2024 to set up a joint security coordination centre in Baghdad and a joint training centre at Bashiqa.