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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in New York on Wednesday, with the two governments announcing an agreement to gradually transfer control of a Turkish military base in northern Iraq to Baghdad and to jointly address the presence of banned armed groups in the Sinjar region.
The closed-door meeting took place at the Turkish House (Turkevi) building in New York, as Erdogan continued a series of bilateral engagements on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly.
According to a joint statement issued by the two governments, Erdogan and al-Zaidi agreed to deepen security cooperation between Türkiye and Iraq.
The statement said the two sides had reached an understanding on fully establishing state authority in Sinjar and ending the presence of banned foreign armed elements there, without specifying which groups were referenced.
The statement also said that, in light of progress made in Iraq's security measures, Turkish forces would gradually hand over the Bashiqa-Zilkan base to the Iraqi federal government, following a mechanism and timeline to be agreed upon by both sides.
Türkiye has maintained a military presence at the Bashiqa camp near Mosul since 2015, a deployment that has periodically strained relations with Baghdad, which has at times called for its withdrawal.
Beyond security matters, the two leaders agreed to expand bilateral trade and investment volume and to move immediately on implementing previously signed agreements, the statement said.
The parties also committed to accelerating joint strategic projects, chief among them the Development Road Project, a planned trade and transport corridor intended to link the Gulf region through Iraq to Türkiye and onward to Europe.
The initiative, first unveiled in 2023, has been positioned by both governments as a major infrastructure undertaking involving rail and road links running the length of Iraq.
The meeting, which was not open to press, was attended by senior members of the Turkish government and state apparatus, including Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Justice Minister Akin Gurlek, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, and Trade Minister Omer Bolat. Also present were National Intelligence Organization (MIT) chief Ibrahim Kalin, Presidential Communications Director Burhanettin Duran, Chief Foreign Policy and Security Adviser Akif Cagatay Kilic, and Haluk Gorgun, head of the Presidency of Defense Industries.
The meeting was one of several bilateral talks Erdogan has held in New York this week as part of Türkiye's participation in the UN General Assembly's annual high-level gathering, which brings together heads of state and government from around the world each September.
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