Turkey agrees to pull out of key base in north Iraq, occupy others
Turkey has agreed to gradually withdraw its troops from a strategic military base near Mosul in northern Iraq and hand over its control to the Baghdad government.
The announcement was made in a joint statement issued by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi following their meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on Thursday.
“In light of the progress Iraq has achieved through security measures, Turkish forces will gradually hand over the Bashiqa-Zelikan camp to the Iraqi federal government, in accordance with the agreed-upon mechanism and timeline,” the statement said.
In return, Baghdad has agreed to disarm an Izadi self-defense group with links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), designated by Turkey as a terrorist organization, from the northwestern region of Sinjar.
According to the statement, the two countries agreed to “fully extend the authority of the Iraqi state in Sinjar and to end the presence of banned foreign armed elements”.
The Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS) was established by the PKK to help Izadis defend themselves after the Daesh terrorist group captured the Izadi ancestral heartland of Sinjar and went on to slaughter thousands of Izadi men and boys and abduct girls to be used as sex slaves in August 2014.
Back then, Daesh enjoyed support from Turkey and the Kurdistan Regional Government, led by Masoud Barzani, who reportedly wished to ethnically cleanse Sinjar of Izadis to incorporate the region into a future independent Kurdish state.
Baghdad plans to incorporate eligible Izadi militants from the YBS into the Iraqi army.
Turkey maintained a military presence at the Bashiqa base in 2015 using the Deash occupation of nearby Mosul as a pretext, refusing repeated Iraqi requests to withdraw its troops since then.
Ankara will continue to occupy several other bases in northern Iraq for operations against the PKK, which has bases in the Qandil mountains in northeast Iraq, despite ongoing peace negotiations with the group.
Last year, PKK decided to disarm and dissolve in hopes of achieving legal status in Turkey to participate in the Turkish political system.
The withdrawal of Turkish troops from the Bashiqa base comes as US forces will leave Iraq by September 30, ending the US decades-long military presence in Iraq.
US troops first entered Iraq during Washington’s 2003 illegal invasion of the country. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed by US forces and in the ensuing sectarian civil war.
'Dirty weapon’: Kata’ib Hezbollah urges Iraqis to break US siege on Iran
Iraqi MP: Resistance weapons aimed at enemies, terrorist groups
Pezeshkian: Iran ready to resolve issues with neighbors through diplomacy
Saudi Arabia has kept nuclear weapons option open: Report
VIDEO | 26th ICCU focuses on future of cardiovascular medicine
VIDEO | UN officials say US sanctions on Cuba are having warlike effects on locals
Gharibabadi: International law’s credibility hinges on states’ equality before the law
UN expands list of companies linked to illegal Israeli settlements
Escalating violence in Yemen displaces 71,000 children, exacerbates malnutrition: UNICEF
ECO can play greater role in regional peace, economic integration: Araghchi
Trump seeks to ‘colonize’ Brazil, seize its wealth through election meddling: Lula
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
