ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Turkey will begin taking “necessary steps” toward the “gradual” handover of the Zilkan military base in Nineveh province to Iraqi authorities, as Baghdad and Ankara move to establish joint oversight of efforts to end the presence of armed groups in Sinjar.

On September 23, the Iraqi and Turkish governments announced that the Turkish army would “gradually” hand over the Zilkan military base in Nineveh province to Iraqi authorities following a meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

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

According to a Sunday statement from the office of the Iraqi Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, “The Turkish side announces that it will begin taking the necessary steps on its part toward the gradual handover of the Bashiqa–Zilkan camp to the Iraqi federal government.”

The two sides also “decided to activate the ‘Joint Security Coordination Committee,’ as previously agreed” for “joint verification and oversight of the process that began in Sinjar to end the presence of armed groups,” the statement added.

The latest announcement followed a high-level security committee meeting between the two countries, according to Iraq’s Security Media Cell.

The announcement comes after the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), an all-Yazidi force affiliated with the PKK, announced in late October that 4,165 of its fighters would integrate into the Iraqi security apparatus.

The PKK, which battled Ankara for over four decades, agreed to dissolve itself, withdrawing from military positions in the Kurdistan Region and engaging in a ceremonial disarmament ceremony in Sulaimani in July 2025. 

The integration comes amid Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s agenda of consolidating arms to the state, one of his government’s main objectives.

Zaidi’s government had also set September 30 as the deadline for armed groups to hand over their weapons, coinciding with the US-led anti-Islamic State (ISIS) coalition’s withdrawal, but later shifted to a phased process extending into 2027 after several Iran-aligned groups rejected the deadline.

The withdrawal of Turkish troops from Iraqi and Kurdistan Region territories has been one of the demands by the Iran-backed militias to hand over weapons to the state.

The Kurdistan Region’s interior ministry in late October expressed concern over the YBS integration. It criticized the implementation of an “unwanted security and administrative reality” and noted that the decisions had been made “unilaterally”.