Turkey plans for military base in Afghanistan

TURKEY’S Nato mission is ending in Afghanistan, but Ankara is planning to establish a military base in the country.

Turkish diplomats have been negotiating with the Taliban to have a permanent security presence in the country to protect Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International airport. The burning question is whether Ankara will provide a corridor for the transfer of jihadists from Syria to Afghanistan.

International media reported that Ankara’s main aim of running the Hamid Karzai International Airport was to please the US government, in the hope that such action would end American sanctions over its acquisition of the advanced Russian S-400 missile defence system.

World media reported that Turkey had cancelled plans to secure Kabul’s international airport. However, the Turkish government’s Afghanistan involvement is not part of its Nato mission, but a separate matter, with the Taliban wanting technical support from Turkey in running Kabul’s airport.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayip Erdo÷an has said that Turkish diplomats met the Taliban inside Kabul’s airport and that Turkey did not need permission from any other country to negotiate with the Taliban.

He also told reporters in Cyprus weeks ago that the US had negotiated with the Taliban, and Turkey had nothing that contradicted the Taliban’s beliefs, and Ankara can have a more comfortable dialogue with the Taliban than America.

On August 24, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying: “We want good relations with Turkey, the Turkish government and the Muslim people of the Turkish nation.”

The Kabul Airport bombing that killed more than 100 people, including at least 13 US service members and 90 Afghans, reinforced Turkey’s desire to ensure airport security.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşo÷lu, who had a press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Ankara recently, expressed Turkey’s plans to run Kabul Airport.

He said the bomb attacks had damaged runways, towers, terminals and the civilian side of the airport, and Turkey needed to repair the airport to run it.

In Ankara, Maas said Germany was grateful to Turkey for its offer to continue to help run the airport after Nato’s withdrawal, and said Germany was ready to support that financially and technically, Reuters reported.

Maas also praised Turkey’s contribution to the realisation of evacuation flights.

As a Nato member, Turkey has been responsible for security at Kabul’s airport, and the Turkish government is clearly expressing its view that Ankara will not leave the airport’s security to the Taliban.

Turkey has had around 500 troops stationed at Kabul’s airport since 2015 to keep the airport operational.

Erdo÷an told Turkish broadcaster NTV that his government had not decided yet to run the airport and was not in a rush to start flights.

He said, however, that Turkey

could not leave the airport’s security to the Taliban as Ankara feared that another bloodbath might happen in the airport under the Taliban’s poor security control.

Turkey’s Presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin told NTV last week that he was not sure if the Taliban had the

capacity to secure the airport.

While Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party is negotiating with the Taliban and Western powers to run Kabul’s airport and keep Turkish security forces in Afghanistan, Turkey’s main opposition People’s Republican Party leader

Kemal Kılıçdaro lu strongly opposes Turkey’s new Afghanistan military adventure.

Meral Akşener, the leader of the Iyi Party (Good Party) is also critical of Erdo÷an’s Afghanistan policy.

“There is no country called Afghanistan anymore. Why should our troops stay there? Stop talking nonsense to please the United States, and withdraw our soldiers from this swamp,” she tweeted in last month.

Most Turkish people and Turkish opposition parties disagree with Erdo÷an’s expansionist Afghanistan policy, but Turkey’s Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said last month that Turkey was determined to make contributions for the security, peace and welfare of the Afghan people, state broadcaster TRT reported.

Akar is key to Turkey’s security policies since Erdo÷an’s health deteriorated recently.

The main agenda of Erdo÷an’s meeting with US President Joe Biden at the Nato Summit in Brussels in June was Afghanistan.

Senior Turkish journalist Murat Yetkin said last month that the US government thanked Turkey for its Kabul Airport proposal.

The concern is whether Erdo÷an will transfer jihadists from Syria to Afghanistan.

The Al-Monitor news site reported that there were an estimated 10 000 foreign fighters in Afghanistan, and Syrian jihadists were inspired by the Taliban takeover.

Turkey’s new adventure in Afghanistan was depicted by the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party Devlet Bahceli, who said: “The evacuation of Turkish soldiers from Afghanistan is the right decision, but if needed, Turkey’s military presence in Afghani-stan to fight against terrorists is an obligation stemming from its (Turkey’s) faith, cultural and historical ties with the region. Ankara cannot be safe if there is no security in Kabul.”