Turkey To Send Provincial Reconstruction Teams To Afghanistan

ANKARA - Turkey will send provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) to Takhar, Afghanistan, sources said on Thursday.
Earlier, Turkey and NATO argued over the mission of area, but arguments ended when Turkey convinced NATO.
The 200-member team will include 80 soldiers.
The team, which will leave for Afghanistan within a month, is expected to stay in Takhar 3-5 years.
During its summit in Istanbul on July 28 and 29, 2004, NATO decided to extend the International Security Assistance Force's (ISAF) area of mission and authority by forming PRTs.
Turkey has insisted on deploying its team in Takhar, a city in north-eastern part of Afghanistan since the very beginning.
Meanwhile, Turkey will not send any reinforcement units for the elections to be held in Afghanistan in October.
Noting that there had been nearly 160 Turkish soldiers in the region for now, sources said that Turkey would undertake command of ISAF in Afghanistan for the second time in the February-August period of 2005.
(UK-AÖ) 15.07.2004