Six years after Erbil and Baghdad signed a UN-backed agreement to normalize Sinjar, the Yazidi heartland is undergoing its biggest shift since its liberation from ISIS. In late October, the Iraqi government took control of Mount Sinjar and absorbed thousands of fighters from the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBŞ) into its security forces. Baghdad hails a step toward state control of weapons; the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) says it was taken without Erbil, in breach of the agreement meant to settle the district’s future.
Mount Sinjar Changes Hands
The Sinjar Agreement, signed on October 9, 2020, set out a joint roadmap: the withdrawal of armed groups operating outside the state, including PKK-affiliated formations; security handed to federal and local police and the National Security Service; a new, independent mayor acceptable to both governments; and reconstruction to allow the displaced to return. By October 2025, the KRG said none of its main administrative and security provisions had been implemented.
The deadlock broke this autumn, largely on Baghdad’s terms. On September 11, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi met a joint delegation of the YBŞ and the Yazidi Cause Alliance, led by MP Murad Ismael, and announced that the YBŞ would hand over its weapons and that Mount Sinjar would come under full federal authority. On September 23 in New York, al-Zaidi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan agreed to restore full state authority in Sinjar, linking that progress to the gradual handover of Turkey’s Bashiqa-Zilkan base near Mosul.
On October 26, a ceremony on the mountain formally ended the YBŞ’s military structure. According to the group, 4,150 members of the YBŞ and the Women’s Units joined Iraqi security institutions, while Iraqi troops moved into former YBŞ headquarters and tunnels. Baghdad described it as a historic day for the state.
Erbil’s response was sharp. KRG Interior Minister Reber Ahmed said what was happening in Sinjar fell outside the framework of the agreement, and his ministry accused Baghdad of imposing security arrangements unilaterally. Erbil’s objection is to being bypassed, not to disarmament itself. The KRG insisted full implementation of the 2020 agreement is the only viable solution; failing that, the decision should rest with Sinjar’s people, especially the Yazidis. Baghdad replied that the matter is exclusively the responsibility of the federal government. Haidar Shesho, the Peshmerga commander in Sinjar, said his forces were not party to the deal, though it could help if it brings real stability.
The administrative track remains frozen, with no seated mayor. When the KDP bloc on the Nineveh Provincial Council pushed for fresh nominations on October 22, a parliamentary committee ordered the council to halt. Meanwhile, about 110,000 Sinjar residents still live in camps in Duhok province, and another 170,000 are displaced outside the camps.
President Barzani: The Agreement and the Will of the Yazidis
For President Masoud Barzani, who oversaw the Peshmerga operation that liberated Sinjar town in November 2015, the district has remained a constant political priority. When the 2020 agreement was signed, he called it a positive step in the right direction and expressed hope that it would open the way to resolving all outstanding disputes between Erbil and Baghdad. On the tenth anniversary of the genocide in 2024, he urged an end to the unjust and abnormal conditions imposed on Sinjar’s residents for a decade.
On August 3, the twelfth anniversary of the ISIS assault, President Barzani called for displaced Yazidis to return to their ancestral land with dignity, demanded compensation for their losses and suffering, and pledged to back their demands with all his power. On October 6, marking the Jama Festival, he reaffirmed that he will always support efforts to protect the rights and legitimate demands of the Yazidis.
He has also placed Sinjar within the wider Erbil–Baghdad file. When al-Zaidi, then prime minister-designate, visited him in Pirmam on May 2, President Barzani stressed that adherence to the constitution is the best path to stability and to resolving disputes. That approach now faces a test: some analysts say the Kurds have been sidelined from the latest decisions on Sinjar, while others argue Erbil cannot be shut out, given the Peshmerga’s role in freeing it.
The coming months will show whether the security handover becomes the foundation for full normalization, with an agreed administration, trusted local police, reconstruction and the return of more than a quarter of a million displaced people, or a new arrangement shaped without one of the agreement’s two signatories. For President Barzani and the Kurds, the position is clear: Sinjar’s future should be decided by the 2020 agreement and by the will of its own people, not by unilateral steps.
By Jawad Qadir