ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Turkish army is set to “gradually” handover the Zilkan military base in Nineveh province to Iraqi authorities through an “agreed-upon mechanism and timeline,” said a joint Iraqi-Turkish statement following Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s meeting. 

Zaidi and Erdogan met on Wednesday at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, agreeing to deepen security cooperation and work towards a resolution to a number of pending matters, including the tense security environment in the Yazidi heartland of Sinjar. 

“In light of the progress that Iraq has achieved through security measures, Turkish forces will gradually handover the Bashiqa-Zilkan camp to the Iraqi federal government,” said a joint Iraqi-Turkish statement shared by Zaidi’s office.

The handover process will take place “in accordance with an agreed-upon mechanism and timeline,” the statement said. 

Baghdad and Ankara also agreed to “fully extend the authority of the Iraqi state in Sinjar and to end the presence of banned foreign armed elements,” referencing the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Sinjar is home to the all-Yazidi Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), an armed group linked to the PKK. The YBS’s presence in the territory, which borders Syria, has attracted a large number of Turkish airstrikes over the years, killing senior commanders and members. 

Earlier in September, Zaidi announced that the YBS will begin handing over their weapons to the Iraqi government, while eligible members will be integrated. 

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Turkey joined the US-led coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2015, establishing the Zilkan military base in Nineveh’s Bashiqa district. While Ankara maintains numerous bases in the Kurdistan Region under the pretext of curbing the PKK, Zilkan is located much deeper inside Iraqi territory. 

The base has become a flashpoint for tensions between the Iraqi and Turkish governments, and has been the subject of attacks from both the PKK and Iran-backed Iraqi militias angry over the Turkish army’s presence in Iraqi territory. 

In July 2022, a deadly Turkish artillery shelling at a tourist resort in the Kurdistan Region’s Zakho prompted vast outrage after the attack killed nine Iraqi tourists and injured tens of others. The incident harmed diplomatic relations between Baghdad and Ankara and prompted Iraqi political forces to urge the government to expel Turkish forces from Zilkan.