BY ZEYNEP GURCANLI
STAR- Columnist Zeynep Gurcanli writes on the latest developments in Afghanistan and Turkey’s stance towards these. A summary of her column is as follows:
Whenever I visit rural towns outside Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, all the Afghans ask me the same question: Won’t the ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] come here as well?
When Germany and the Netherlands turned over the ISAF command to NATO earlier this week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s speech for the occasion delivered a stinging reproach by posing the very same question. Karzai called for the ISAF, whose mission is restricted to Kabul alone, to expand to other regions of his country.
The number of countries believing in the rightness of Karzai’s request is growing every day. For example, ISAF’s former German commander called on the Western countries to help Afghanistan. ‘Don’t forget Afghanistan,’ he urged. ‘Don’t cut off your assistance. And please don’t restrict your assistance to only Kabul.’
However, most countries, Turkey included, don’t want ISAF’s mission expanded. The reason why is that serious security threats exist outside the capital. The problems which US forces faced during their Operation Enduring Freedom show that those opposing Karzai’s idea are in the right. American soldiers and the Afghan troops trained by them are attacked every single day. The number of US casualties is unknown. Diplomatic circles state that this information is highly classified in Washington.
Meanwhile, Americans have formed construction teams whose goal is to reconstruct rural areas with the cooperation of the military and civilians. Washington believes that these teams should be international in nature so that all relevant countries, including Turkey, might contribute to Afghanistan’s reconstruction. As a matter of fact, what Washington wants is to pass off some of its burden onto the shoulders of others.
However, Turkey is highly reluctant on the issue. Our officials state that the reason for Ankara’s hesitation lies in the Afghan people’s growing perception, as the number of foreign soldiers increases, that their country is being occupied by invaders. But the Netherlands and Germany are quite active on this issue, and Britain has also already begun planning to send its soldiers to certain key Afghan locations as part of these construction teams. British teams will be located in all provinces along commercial roads and in oil-rich northern Afghanistan. In brief, these countries are trying to establish security in the country on the one hand, and sharing the country’s resources on the other. Meanwhile, our country is staying on the sidelines. Since we turned over the ISAF command to Germany and the Netherlands earlier this year, no Ankara official has set foot in Kabul...