Turkey, apart from a few technicians, has evacuated all civilians and military personnel from Afghanistan, President Recep Tayyip Turkey said Friday. However, he appeared to be critical of the U.S. withdrawal.
“We brought our citizens to our country. We currently have a limited number of technical components. Erdogan stated that we have also withdrawn all of our teams at a Sarajevo news conference.
He said, “Countries who claim they are the strongest should not enter the countries they have entered.” It is a costly decision to leave these countries and hand them over terrorist organizations.
Erdogan made apparent references to the Taliban and Islamic State groups and said that there was a conflict between terrorist organizations in Afghanistan. It is “unimaginable that Turkey or other countries will profit from this conflict.”
Erdogan stated earlier Friday that Turkey had been in discussions with the Taliban about providing technical support for the airport’s continued operation after NATO forces withdraw.
Although the possibility of Turkey operating Hamid Karzai International Airport following the withdrawal of foreign troops was initially raised in June, it seemed to have been abandoned when the Taliban took Kabul on August 15.
