Turkey backs the recent deal on northern Iraq's Sinjar, signed between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the Turkish Defense Ministry said Sunday.
Speaking at a weekly press conference, spokesperson Nadide Şebnem Aktop said Ankara has been closely following developments since the agreement was signed on Oct. 9 to "restore public order and stability in Sinjar."
On Tuesday, Iraqi security forces started implementing a deployment plan in the center of Sinjar district to enhance stability and security in the area that will enable displaced people to return home.
The Sinjar deal, inked under the auspices of the United Nations in October between the central government in Baghdad and the KRG on the status of the region, envisages clearing the region of PKK terrorists.
Within this normalization process, security arrangements are expected to be implemented in line with the deal such as booting out armed organizations, including the PKK terrorist group, its affiliates and Iran-backed militias.
Through the establishment of security and the removal of armed combatants, it is expected that the displaced Yazidi community, which suffered genocidal attacks by Daesh after the group took control of large swathes of territory in the region, can finally return.
All PKK terrorist elements have left the Sinjar district in Iraq's northern Nineveh province, the country's Joint Operations Command claimed Thursday.
"According to the agreement between the central government and KRG, the federal forces are responsible for controlling the land and ensuring security in Sinjar," Tahsin Hafaji, the command's spokesperson, told the National Iraqi News Agency.
He noted that the federal police of the central government are present in the district and border guards are also located on the outskirts of the district at the Iraqi-Syrian border. "All armed elements left Sinjar," the Iraqi spokesperson claimed.
The PKK terrorist group managed to establish a foothold in Sinjar in mid-2014 on the pretext that it was protecting the local Yazidi community from Daesh. Since then, the PKK has reportedly established a new base in the area for its logistical and command-and-control activities. Daesh slaughtered more than 3,000 Yazidis, enslaved 7,000 women and girls and displaced most of its 550,000-strong community from the Yazidis' ancestral home in Sinjar.
Turkey has long stressed that it will not tolerate threats against its national security and has called on Iraqi officials to take the necessary steps to eliminate the terrorist group. Ankara previously noted that if the expected steps were not taken, it would not shy away from targeting terrorist threats, particularly in Sinjar. Following the announcement of the deal, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it hoped the agreement would enable the reinstatement of Iraqi authorities' control in Sinjar and lead to the eradication of the Daesh and PKK terrorist groups and their offshoots from the region.
