Ankara and Baghdad Reach Deal on Military Camp Handover in Northern Iraq
Turkey and Iraq agreed Wednesday that Turkish forces will gradually hand over a military camp in northern Iraq to the Iraqi government, alongside a broader commitment to end the presence of what both sides called outlawed armed elements in the region, following talks in New York.
The agreement came after Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, where both sides said in a joint statement that they had agreed to deepen security cooperation. The statement said they reached an agreement on fully establishing state authority in Sinjar, referring to Kurdish militants, some based in the mountainous Sinjar area of northern Iraq, whose presence there has long been a point of friction. Turkey has been pursuing a peace process it hopes will lead to the disarmament of militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party and bring an end to a conflict that has dragged on for decades.
Under the agreed mechanism and timeline, and alongside security measures taken by Iraq, Turkish forces will gradually hand over the Bashiqa-Zelikan base, a military installation in northern Iraq near Mosul, to the Iraqi government. An Iraqi military commander familiar with the talks said the phased withdrawal from Bashiqa and a smaller nearby base is expected to be completed by the end of this year, though Turkey has not immediately confirmed that timeline.
Turkey first deployed troops near Mosul in 2015, saying they were there to train and protect Iraqi forces and local Sunni Arab, Turkmen and Kurdish fighters preparing to confront Daesh, which had seized Mosul the year before. The move sparked a lasting dispute with Baghdad, which called for the troops’ withdrawal, while Ankara maintained they were supporting the anti-Daesh training mission. Turkey continues to maintain several bases in the region, which it says are necessary to protect its national security.
Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria and Iraq, welcomed the agreement, saying it served both Iraqi sovereignty and Turkish security. The joint statement also noted that the two leaders discussed broader bilateral ties and trade, emphasizing the need to urgently implement previously signed agreements and move faster on what they described as strategic projects.
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