Turkey to Withdraw Troops from Iraq’s Bashiqa Base This Month

According to the International Desk of Webangah News Agency, Iraqi armed forces announced that the gradual withdrawal of Turkish soldiers from the Zlikan base, located in Bashiqa, Nineveh, will begin this month. These forces emphasized that the end of the current year marks the deadline for the cessation of Turkey‘s military presence at the aforementioned base and its transfer to Iraqi forces.

The Zlikan base is a Turkish military installation in northern Iraq, hosting over a thousand Turkish personnel and four thousand Iraqi troops. It was previously announced that Turkey would undertake the necessary measures for a phased withdrawal from this base in accordance with an agreement reached between Ankara and Baghdad.

Turkey established the base near Bashiqa in 2015, coordinating with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with the stated aim of training Peshmerga forces as part of the campaign against ISIS elements. However, this quickly became a point of contention between Ankara and Baghdad, as the Iraqi government demanded the withdrawal of Turkish forces from its territory, while Turkey linked the issue to the presence of security threats in northern Iraq.