Turkey Agrees to Hand Over Bashiqa-Zelikan Base to Iraq in Sinjar Security Deal

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi PM Ali al-Zaidi met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on September 23 and agreed that Turkish forces will gradually hand over the Bashiqa-Zelikan camp near Mosul — established in December 2015 to train anti-ISIS forces and long a sovereignty dispute with Baghdad — to the Iraqi federal government 'in accordance with an agreed-upon mechanism and timeline.' In exchange, Iraq committed to removing armed groups Turkey considers security threats from the Sinjar region; Baghdad had already announced this month that the Sinjar Resistance Units, a PKK-affiliated Yazidi militia, agreed to disarm and integrate eligible fighters into Iraqi security forces. Reuters reported the phased Turkish withdrawal is expected to conclude by the end of 2026, though Ankara has not confirmed a formal timetable. The deal lands a week before the September 30 deadline for the separate US-led coalition withdrawal from Iraq.