Global Policy Forum

by Selcan Hacaoglu

Turkey may wind up with two missions in Afghanistan: training opposition forces to fight the Taliban and leading peacekeepers after the U.S.-led assault ends.

NATO's only majority Muslim member is assured of a "very strong role" in postwar Afghanistan, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Thursday. He was in Ankara for a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and Foreign Minister Ismail Cem. Turkey's position in the region and close ties with Central Asian nations will make it an important player in the process of building a new government in Afghanistan that represents all of its ethnic groups, Straw told private NTV.

Turkey says its special forces, who have fought Kurdish rebels for 15 years in the southeast, could train fighters with the Northern Alliance that opposes the Taliban. It also has offered to assemble a peacekeeping mission from Muslim countries.

A strong Turkish role in a future peacekeeping mission could ease the potential antagonism of Afghans. For Turkey, it also could alleviate tension at home, where many oppose U.S. strikes against a Muslim country and most are against sending Turkish troops.

Turkey has participated in NATO peacekeeping missions in a number of countries, including Kosovo and Bosnia, which have Muslim populations.

"The participation of Islamic countries such as Turkey and Jordan, especially, will prevent the Afghanistan war from being seen as a clash between Christians and Muslims," Mehmet Ali Birand wrote in his column in Turkish Daily News on Wednesday.

Turkey's government publicly condemned the Taliban following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, and apparently is allowing its Incirlik air base to be used by U.S. transport planes.

A Turkish military delegation led by Brig. Gen. Umit Sahinturk, commander of a Turkish peacekeeping unit, recently visited the U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla. A military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday that "preparations" were underway at Sahinturk's unit for a mission to Afghanistan.

In an address before Parliament last week, Ecevit said Turkey has long had contacts with Afghan opposition groups, especially the forces of Gen. Rashid Dostum, and it could help build them into an effective fighting force. Dostum's fighters are largely Uzbeks, a group that has close ethnic links with Turks. The Taliban are mostly ethnic Pashtun.

"The struggle in Afghanistan against the archaic regime which hosts terrorism must be carried out until the end," Ecevit told Parliament.

But some strategists warn Afghans might not welcome Turkish peacekeepers, despite the Islamic connection. Turkey's secular regime and its close military ties with the United States and Israel have already drawn the ire of the Taliban.

"Afghanistan is not Kosovo, Turkish peacekeepers would immediately become a target in a hostile environment like Afghanistan," said Behic Gurcihan, at the Istanbul-based National Strategical Studies Institute.

Others say that because Turkey historically has had a good relationship with Afghanistan, now is not the time to turn away. Turkey must work to preserve those links, said Hakan Kirimli, a Central Asia expert at the Bilkent University in Ankara.

Turkey has constructed hospitals, roads and canals in Afghanistan and sent teachers and doctors there since the 1920s. Thousands of Afghan students have attended universities in Turkey.

"Turkey has had a good reputation among all groups in Afghanistan for a long time. Now it has to show its presence in the area for its future interests," said Kirimli. "A peace mission is the best way to do it."