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CAIRO: Turkiye and Iraq agreed on Wednesday for Turkish forces to hand over a military camp in northern Iraq to the Iraqi government gradually, they \u200bsaid after talks in New York, adding they also agreed to end the presence of \u201coutlawed armed elements\u201d in northern Iraq.<\/p>\n
After Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the sides said in a joint statement they had agreed to deepen security cooperation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin this framework, they reached an agreement on fully establishing state authority in \u200cSinjar and \u200cending the presence of outlawed foreign armed \u200belements,\u201d \u200cthey \u2060said, referring \u200bto Kurdish militants, \u2060some of whom are based in the mountainous Sinjar area of northern Iraq.<\/p>\n
Turkiye is continuing a peace process that it hopes will result in the disarmament of those militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK) and end a decades-old conflict.<\/p>\n
The statement on Wednesday added that \u201cin accordance with the agreed-upon mechanism and timeline\u201d and security measures taken by \u2060Iraq, Turkish forces would gradually hand over \u200cthe Bashiqa-Zelikan base, a military installation in \u200cnorthern Iraq near Mosul, to the Iraqi \u200bgovernment.<\/p>\n
An Iraqi military commander familiar \u200cwith the talks said the phased withdrawal of Turkish troops from \u200cthe Bashiqa camp and another small base near Mosul was expected to be completed by the end of this year. There was no immediate comment from Turkiye on the timeline.<\/p>\n
Ankara deployed troops near Mosul in 2015, saying \u200cthey were there to train and protect Iraqi forces and local Sunni Arab, Turkmen and Kurdish fighters \u2060preparing to fight \u2060Islamic State, which seized Mosul in 2014.<\/p>\n
The deployment sparked a dispute with Baghdad, which demanded the troops\u2019 withdrawal, while Ankara said they were supporting the anti-Islamic State training mission. Turkiye still has several bases in the region, which it says are there to protect Turkiye\u2019s national security.<\/p>\n
Tom Barrack, US ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy for Syria and Iraq, welcomed the move, saying \u201cIraqi sovereignty and Turkish security, both (were) served\u201d by it.<\/p>\n
The joint statement said the two leaders also discussed bilateral ties and trade, stressing the need to urgently implement \u200bpreviously signed agreements and \u200bspeed up \u201cstrategic projects.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n