Turkey welcomes Iraq’s drive to build and reinforce border posts

BAGHDAD — Turkey’s Defense Ministry on Thursday welcomed Iraq’s work to build and strengthen posts and checkpoints on its borders and pledged to keep giving Baghdad “all kinds of support.”

“We are continuing the cooperation we have been carrying out with our neighbor Iraq in defense and security,” the ministry said at its weekly news briefing in Ankara. “In this context, we welcome Iraq’s work to set up and strengthen border posts and checkpoints along its borders.”

The ministry said its support aims to secure the border effectively, clear the region of what it called “terrorism” and bring peace, prosperity and stability. It also said Turkey was determined to keep building strong, lasting partnerships with Iraq based on mutual trust, shared interests and complementary capabilities.

The ministry did not say where Iraq is building the posts or how many there are. Iraq’s land border with Turkey runs through the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok and Erbil governorates. Iraq’s Border Forces opened 22 new border posts along that border in October 2024.

The PKK has fought the Turkish state for more than four decades, and Turkey has kept forces in the Kurdistan Region for years to carry out operations against it. The PKK announced its dissolution in May 2025, and its fighters began disarming in the Kurdistan Region that July.

Turkey agreed in September to hand over its Bashiqa-Zilkan base, northeast of Mosul, to Baghdad in stages. In return, Iraq pledged to end the presence of “banned foreign armed elements” in Sinjar, where Ankara objects to the PKK and groups linked to it. On Oct. 26, two PKK-affiliated Yazidi armed groups in Sinjar agreed to merge 4,165 fighters into federal security forces.

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi told state-run Al-Iraqiya TV on Oct. 23 that the two sides had an understanding for Turkish forces to leave Iraqi territory. He gave no timetable, and no completion date has been published for the Bashiqa handover.