Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Ankara on Thursday, joined by Rebar Ahmed, Kurdistan Region of Iraq’s Interior Minister, and Falih al-Fayyadh, head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces.
Following the meeting, Turkey and Iraq signed a memorandum of understanding on ‘military cooperation and the fight against terrorism’.
Both countries will establish Joint Coordination and Training Centres set out in this agreement, meaning that Turkey has agreed to hand over its controversial military base in Nineveh province to the Iraqi army, which will use it as a training facility.
“I am glad that, after long, frank and clear talks, we have reached a number of points which include how to treat the Bashiqa military base. We reached a clear understanding that the Bashiqa military base will be turned into an Iraqi military training base […] It will be run by the [Iraqi] Armed Forces,” Fuad Hussein said during a joint press conference with Hakan Fidan.
The two countries will also establish a Joint Security Coordination Centre in Baghdad, which will focus on “the joint fight not only against terrorism, but also against cross-border organised crime organisations such as human trafficking and narcotics,” Hussein said.
Another decision announced at the press conference was that Turkey will implement partial visa liberalisation for Iraqi citizens. “Visa liberalisation for Iraqi citizens under the age of 15 and over 50 will start on 1 September,” Fidan said.
Fidan also expressed Ankara’s satisfaction with the ban on the activities of three Kurdish parties in Iraq, amongst them the Yazidi party PADÊ, accused of alleged affiliations with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The meeting in Ankara follows a previous meeting between key Turkish and Iraqi officials in Baghdad on 14 March, after which Iraq declared a ban on PKK activities within its borders. Turkey has been long demanding that Iraq designate the PKK as a ‘terrorist organisation’.
It is expected that the decisions made in the meeting will lead to an increase in Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) deployments to Iraqi Kurdistan and Iraq. Turkey is justifying its military incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan with an alleged operation against the PKK, but is regularly targeting civilians, with at least 140 civilians killed by Turkish shelling since 2015.
