By Janet Ekstract
ISTANBUL (TURKISH JOURNAL) – Turkey’s role maintaining security at Kabul airport is precarious after the Taliban threatened the Turkish president. Since a Turkish contingent has been keeping the Hamid Karzai airport afloat for six years, Turkish officials told the U.S. they want to remain. Currently, after lengthy discussions with their American counterparts, Turkey is moving ahead with its plan to secure the airport in the long-term. The Taliban are disconcerted about this turn of events and made it quite clear that if Turkey stays, they will be violating the sovereignty of Afghanistan. The Taliban first began threatening Turkey toward the end of July about the consequences of keeping its troops stationed at the airport. The Taliban had called the idea of Turkish troops running the airport reprehensible and warned Erdogan.
Currently, Turkey is in negotiations with Washington to secure the airport. Keeping a Turkish presence there is key to stability in the country and to maintain an international presence in Afghanistan. So far, the Turkish president has chosen to ignore Taliban warnings of retaliation if his troops refuse to withdraw and insists negotiations will be ongoing. The Turkish side’s aim is to see where talks might lead and to attempt to reach Taliban officials through channels of reconciliation.
To that end, Turkey is trying to see what type of talks it can facilitate with the Taliban and to what extent the talks can achieve anything concrete. Turkey’s president indicated that his team is looking into the type of talks that could possibly take place. On July 23, Turkish Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop emphasized the Turkish role in Afghanistan is to establish and sustain peace through recent efforts and initiatives. Sentop explained that 2021 marks the centennial of diplomatic relations between Turkey and Afghanistan. He commented: “In this special year, Turkey sincerely hopes that our Afghan brothers and sisters will reach the peace, tranquility and stability they have been waiting for so long.” The parliament speaker added that “the safety of the Afghan people” is a top priority for Turkey in any type of talks between his government and the Taliban.
Meanwhile, the Speaker of Afghanistan’s House of the People, Mir Rahman Rahmani said: “We support all initiatives taken by Turkey for safeguarding Kabul airport (Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport). We believe that the Turkish Armed Forces would better assure the security of the airport than other countries.” He added: “The Afghan parliament stands by Turkey.” He also said Turkish peace efforts reflect the longstanding historical ties between the two nations.
A warning from the chief of the Ankara-based Foreign Affairs Institute, Huseyin Bagci points out that Turkey is overestimating its bargaining power with the Taliban. Bagci made it clear that: “Any Turkish participation concerning the airport would be disastrous for Turkish foreign policy.” He highlighted the fact that the Taliban have made their position crystal clear: their dislike for Erdogan and their disdain of the Turkish military presence. Bagci cautioned that the Taliban is determined to eliminate all foreign forces in the country. He added: “Turkey’s presence there is definitely unwanted.”
In the meantime, Turkey is continuing discussions with U.S. officials about the airport situation with both sides labeling the talks productive. Some analysts and experts view Turkey’s need to maintain the airport’s security as a key to reconciling differences with the U.S. An analyst and columnist for the Duvar news portal, Ilhan Uzgel expressed his view: “The most important thing is the AKP government is trying to fix the ties with the Biden administration, and they want to offer something good for them. Ankara is trying to prove that it’s a very good ally; it’s a precious ally and cannot be ignored.” With only mere weeks before the final pullout of American troops is complete, Uzgel warned Turkey could find itself trapped if the Taliban persist in their opposition to the airport security arrangement.
Bagci cautions that the importance of Turkey’s close allies, Pakistan and Qatar to overcome opposition from the Taliban could very well backfire since those countries have close relations with the Taliban. Bagci added: “ The Talban doesn’t consider Pakistan, Qatar, and Turkey as the countries “which should be on the priority list, no they are not.” Uzgel maintains that with Turkey having so little leverage over the Taliban that a last-minute collapse in U.S.-Turkish talks over the airport operation might be a face-saving measure for Turkey. But it comes with a cost, Uzgel reiterated, to bilateral ties.
