Türkiye will begin taking steps towards the gradual handover of its Bashiqa-Zilkan military camp in northern Iraq to the Iraqi federal government, the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said on Sunday. The pledge came at a meeting of the Iraqi-Turkish high-level committee on outstanding bilateral issues, according to a joint statement carried by Anadolu Agency.

The two sides also reaffirmed their commitment to restoring full Iraqi state authority in Sinjar and ending the presence of armed groups linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) there. They agreed to activate a Joint Security Coordination Committee, which will jointly verify and monitor progress in Sinjar, the district in western Nineveh province where Baghdad is trying to extend full state control.

The move builds on an agreement reached by al-Zaidi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on 23 September on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Since then, the Sinjar Resistance Units, a Yazidi armed group linked to the PKK, have placed their weapons under state control, according to Shafaq News. A Nineveh provincial official told the outlet that Turkish troops and vehicles had already partly left the Zilkan camp.

No timetable was given for the handover, and the statement did not say how many Turkish troops remain at the base. It also did not address Türkiye's other military positions in the Kurdistan Region and Nineveh province.

Türkiye set up the base near Bashiqa, north-east of Mosul, in 2015 during the campaign against Islamic State. Successive Iraqi governments have called its presence a breach of sovereignty and demanded a withdrawal, while Ankara has pointed to the PKK's presence in northern Iraq. The PKK, which fought the Turkish state for decades, agreed to dissolve itself and held a ceremonial disarmament in Sulaimani in July 2025.