Iraq will be setting up new base zones on its borderline with Türkiye in order to boost security, the Iraqi Armed Forces has announced.
“We are building many new border bases, taking into account the geographical characteristics and strategic importance of the region,” spokesperson Sabah Numan told news outlet Rudaw, according to a report on Monday.
“Our security forces are making maximum efforts to protect all of Iraq’s borders,” Numan said.
Türkiye and Iraq share a 384-kilometer (226.18-mile) land border, which extends through the provinces of Irbil and Duhok.
“We are reinforcing this line with the most up-to-date technical and logistical infrastructures,” Numan said.
According to the spokesperson, the Iraqi military is cooperating “closely” on the issue with the Peshmerga, an armed force of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The KRG controls northern Iraqi regions where the terrorist group PKK's senior cadres are believed to be in hiding.
Ankara and Baghdad signed a series of security cooperation agreements during a landmark visit by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Iraq last year in April, mainly against the PKK, as well as Daesh terrorists threatening both nations.
Türkiye, which maintains dozens of bases in northern Iraq, has mounted several cross-border operations against the PKK in the region since 2019. Yet, these operations were criticized by Baghdad for “violating its sovereignty.” The difference of opinion led the two countries to explore new ways for cooperation to overcome the joint threat.
Ankara has asked Iraq for more cooperation in combating the PKK, and Baghdad has banned the group from operating in the country, ordered all state institutions to refer to the PKK as a "banned group" in official correspondence and set up two military bases in the Zakho region after Erdoğan’s visit.
More recently, on Feb. 24, Iraqi Border Guard Commander Maj. Gen. Muhammed Abdulwehab Saidi visited Ankara upon Türkiye’s official invitation.
During the visit, Turkish Land Forces Commander Lt. Gen. Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu and other security officials met to discuss border security and swap intelligence.
Speaking to the media on the same day, Iraqi Border Guard spokesperson Maj. Gen. Haider Karkhi said the meeting was an important step in ensuring border security between the two countries, strengthening information exchange and increasing mutual coordination.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by the European Union, the United States and Türkiye. The group is responsible for more than 40,000 deaths in Türkiye, including women and children, over a four-decade terror campaign.
The fight against the terrorist group was fought mainly in rural areas of southeastern Türkiye but is now more focused on the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers southeast of the Turkish border in Iraq's KRG capital of Irbil.
The PKK also still occupies northern Iraqi cities Sinjar and Makhmour, and has a foothold in Sulaymaniyah, all of which Ankara strongly opposes.
The end of the PKK, however, might be close.
Also in late February, the PKK’s imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan, in a historic breakthrough, called on his group to lay down arms and dissolve itself.
Öcalan said earlier that "all groups must lay down their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself" in a declaration drawn up in his cell on Imrali prison island, where he has been held in solitary confinement since 1999.
Iraq's regional KRG President Nechirvan Barzani also welcomed Öcalan's call.
"We warmly welcome Ocalan's message ... and we call on the PKK to adhere to and implement this message," Barzani said on X.
The PKK is expected to hold a "congress" this spring to announce its full compliance with Öcalan's call.
However, the terrorist group has set conditions, including Öcalan's release.
Ankara has so far rejected the demands, including the unilateral cease-fire announced by the group.
