Erodgan’s shady role in Afghanistan

The quest to attain a bigger role on the world stage has cost Turkey, led by President Recep Tayyib Erdogan, a lot of its credibility, and weakened diplomatic relations and the Turkish economy in the past decade. Erdogan now seeks to attain a new role, as mediator on behalf of the Western powers with the terrorist Taliban group, which seized power in Afghanistan in August. It is a role that the Qatari regime has played for many years where they hosted negotiations between the USA and Taliban in Doha. But Erdogan looks more determined now to fill a void left by Western powers in Afghanistan which would enhance his image as a global Islamic leader.

Despite, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu statement on Nov 4 that his country is not in a hurry to recognize Taliban government in Afghanistan, the actions of the Turkish government suggest otherwise. Last October, a Taliban delegation arrived in Istanbul to conduct high-level talks with Turkish government. But while showing coldness in the reception in front of international media, the talks were described by other sources are warm and evidence of Erdogan’s ambition to play a role at any cost.

Erdogan’s eagerness towards dealing diplomatically one of the most notorious terrorist groups in the world is met on the other hand by his rash decision to expel 10 Western ambassadors from Turkey on Oct 23. These ambassadors include the United States, France, Canada, Germany, Holland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and New Zealand ambassadors. Seven of these ambassadors represent NATO countries in Turkey.

Even before the shambolic American withdrawal from Afghanistan was announced, Erdogan declared his willingness to meet the leader of the Taliban. He also stated that Turkey would secure the airport for international flights and requested financial and logistical assistance from the NATO to carry on the mission. But after the fall of Kabul in the hands of Taliban, he didn’t waste time courting the new leaders of Afghanistan and described the US presence as unsafe.

“Afghanistan was not safer with the US military’s presence in the country” said Erdogan in an interview to CBS News, network “With the American presence dating back to two decades, the region was not any safer. On the contrary, every day the region lost more blood.”

Before the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, Erdogan lauded the “moderate” nature of Taliban leaders’ statement and expressed his willingness to cooperation paving the way for more Turkish involvement to dealing with the terrorist group. The “Moderate” allegation was widely propagated in Turkish state-owned media.

Turkey extended previous offer to the NATO and former Afghani government for operating the Kabul international airport to the Taliban. The offer was met with acceptance and at the moment there ongoing negotiations on how to operate it.

With his background as a member of the Global Muslim Brotherhood group, Erdogan has no qualms in dealing with Taliban. Erdogan held personal ties to Afghan Mujahedeen and the warlords in the country since the 1980s. He maintained ties with Afghan warlords such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, known as the “Butcher of Kabul” in Afghanistan. Erdogan was seen in an old video circa 1985 sitting at the feet of the Hekmatyar showing allegiance to the man known for his brutality and war crimes.

Hekmatyar accused the media of tarnishing his image in an interview. “I remember how Erdogan’s opposition misused this image, saying this is a big, big terrorist… Erdogan protects and befriends the biggest terrorist,” said Hekmatyar.

Erdogan ill-fated Ottoman expansionist dream known as Mavi Watan (Blue Homeland) which aims at restoring the influence of the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, has fallen on hard times. Erdogan has failed in diplomatic confrontations against Egypt and with France. Turkey faces growing military losses in the Syrian civil war, an unsuccessful Libyan campaign, and has so far failed to bully neighboring Greece in the Mediterranean in a fight over oil and natural gas rights.

Erdogan now believes that expanding eastward, establishing ties with radical and Islamist regimes Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, will pave the way for a greater role in Central Asia which he couldn’t attain in other regions. The presence in Afghanistan is part of these efforts.

Erdogan’s new role will empower a terrorist group that has committed atrocities for 25 years in the country and continues to do the same. These atrocities include public beheadings of dissidents including women, torture, kidnapping, and instilling fear of citizens through the harsh application of Sharia law.

But Erdogan hopes that such arrangements will help save the struggling Turkish economy to regain its once vibrant form. The inflation rate has reached 20% annually with the Turkish lira reaching 9.7 against the Dollar this month from 3.75 in early 2018.

After failing in discovering any new gas deposits in the Mediterranean, Erdogan seeks to be part of the new search for minerals and oil in Afghanistan which is believed to hold 1.6 billion barrels of crude oil, 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 500 million barrels of natural gas liquids according to expert estimations. The public boycott to Turkish products in countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia due to the animosity stances by Erdogan towards these countries hasn’t helped the ailing Turkish economic situation.

Turkish attempts to convince the world that they seek to change the Taliban attitude is a farce, propagated by Turkish media and parroted by naïve mainstream western media.

Erdogan’s Turkey new role in Afghanistan opens a new shameful chapter of entertaining terrorism that spells further disasters for the civilized world as the war on terrorism has taken already a hit by the recent US withdrawal. That said, Biden administration is making every effort to promote the ludicrous argument that there is a difference between Taliban and ISIS, and is mulling assisting the Taliban against their jihadist rivals. Accordingly, Erdogan capitalizing on such a bizarre situation through a new mischievous role in Afghanistan was expected.

A Statesman’s Forum with H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister of Turkey by Brookings Institution is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0