Türkiye and Iraq Activate Joint Security Committee to Oversee Sinjar Process, With Phased Handover of Bashiqa-Zilkan Base
BAGHDAD — Türkiye's Communications Directorate and the office of Iraq's prime minister said in statements on November 8 that Türkiye and Iraq have agreed to activate their previously agreed Joint Security Coordination Committee to jointly verify and monitor the process of ending the presence of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Sinjar, and that Türkiye will begin steps toward a phased handover of the Bashiqa-Zilkan military base in Nineveh province to Iraq's federal government.
The statements said the steps were decided at a meeting of the Iraqi-Turkish high-level committee on outstanding bilateral issues, building on an understanding reached by the two countries' leaders on September 23 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, under which Iraqi state authority would be fully restored in Sinjar, the PKK presence there ended, and the base handed over in phases. No timetable for the handover was given.
Sinjar, in Nineveh province in northwestern Iraq, is home to the Yazidi community. The Sinjar Resistance Units, a Yazidi force affiliated with the PKK, said in late October that more than 4,000 of its fighters would integrate into the Iraqi security apparatus and place their weapons under state control.
The PKK fought the Turkish state for more than four decades and is listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union. It announced its dissolution in 2025 and held a symbolic disarmament ceremony in Sulaimani, in Iraq's Kurdistan Region.
(Source: Turkish Communications Directorate)
Source: Turkish Communications Directorate
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：伊拉克尼尼微省的辛贾尔山（资料照片）。Nawaf shengaly 摄，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Sinjar Mountains in Iraq's Nineveh province (file photo). Nawaf shengaly, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
