ANKARA - The curfew at night in Kabul which continues for 23 years ended temporarily on Friday.
Diplomatic sources said the same day that the curfew ended due to the effect of increasing security atmosphere by the beginning of the Ramadan.
The application will continue during the Ramadan temporarily, but if no incident that threatens the security takes place during that period, the curfew can be lifted also after Ramadan.
Yet International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) increased its patrolling teams between the hours of 24.00 and 03.00 which are risky hours in respect of security.
Turkish soldiers gave information to the soldiers of other ISAF countries for the importance and sensitivity of Ramadan and suggested soldiers to take into consideration these information in their contacts with Afghan people.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan has been included in the list of ISAF countries. Azerbaijan will take part with a 30-member group in the Turkish group. The group is expected to go to Kabul on Nov. 19 and start working there. The number of ISAF countries has reached 22.
No agreement has been reached about the date of Germany's and the Netherland's taking over the command of ISAF together after Turkey.
Turkey seems resolved to leave the mission on Dec. 20 and it expects Germany to make official its political decision to take over the command.
The cabinet in Germany decided to take over the command of ISAF with Netherlands from Turkey a few days ago. The Dutch government took a similar decision on Nov.1. The decision of the German cabinet has to be approved by the German federal parliament.
If the command of ISAF is not taken by them until December, Turkey will assess the alternatives.
Diplomatic sources said that the negotiations at the technical level continued for a certain period of time, adding that there is no study yet about the negotiations on the transfer of the command.
The U.S. has not demanded Turkey to extend its mandate as the ISAF commander.