Turkey to hand over military base to Iraq

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraq's Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to discuss the transfer of control of a military base from Turkey to Iraq. The base in Bashiqa, located in northern Iraq, will be handed over to the Federal Government of Iraq according to an agreed mechanism and timeline.

The joint statement, released by the Turkish presidency, announced that this transition signifies a turning point for both Iraqi sovereignty and Turkish security interests. Turkish forces are set to gradually withdraw from the base, currently housing up to 600 soldiers. The US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, expressed his support for the agreement.

This move comes after Iraq requested the handover, citing tensions over the base's establishment in 2015 and the presence of illegal foreign armed elements. The agreement also includes the restoration of state authority in Sinjar and the elimination of foreign armed elements from the region. Turkey and Iraq have a history of military operations in the Sinjar region against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which announced its dissolution in May 2025.

Baghdad has since placed Sinjar under the full authority of the federal government, following an agreement with Yazidi armed groups to disarm and surrender weapons to the state.