Tuesday, April 10, 2018
Kabul (BNA) Following Turkish Prime Minister’s visit to Afghanistan, a number of experts and representatives of people in parliament in their interviews with The Kabul Times correspondent have considered role of Turkey as effective in peace and reconstruction process of Afghanistan.
“Turkey is among countries that can play effective role towards maintaining peace and stability in Afghanistan and convince the Taliban group to joint peace process,” said Anarkali Hunaryar, a member in Afghanistan Senate.
She added that the government of Turkey should convince the Taliban group to peace talks and build trust between the Taliban group and Afghanistan government as Turkey had influence on the group.
Praising Turkey for its assistance to Afghanistan in reconstruction, counter terrorism and education, Lailuma Ahmadi, another senator, told The Kabul Times correspondent that Turkey could have provided lots of aids to Afghanistan in education sector in the past 16 years, adding that concerns among Afghan families over Afghan-Turk schools have been now addressed and the respective schools’ students could now follow their education.
In meeting with leaders of national unity government, the Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim reiterated his country’s continued cooperation and assistance to Afghanistan and stressed that Turkey would stand beside the people and government of Afghanistan and support the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process. He assured of any cooperation in this regard.
Related to role of Turkey, Jamal Farahmand, an Afghan political expert, said: “Fortunately Turkey has had good relations with the government and people of Afghanistan in the past 16 years as the country launched a range of trilateral meetings between Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan in order to help build trust among the country and maintain peace and stability in Afghanistan.”
He added that Istanbul Process – Heart of Asia was one of the most significant initiatives of Afghanistan government in its foreign policy in the past few years; therefore, Turkey has had effective role in issues of Afghanistan.
Considering strengthening relations between Afghanistan and Turkey as useful for the country, Haidar Hemat, another Afghan expert, said undoubtedly regional countries in particular Turkey could play vital role in changes in the region as Turkey has provided cooperation to Afghanistan in various fields.
“Besides cooperation with Afghanistan in peace process, Turkey is hosting a large number of Afghan traders and investors and the country can also play vital role in economic development of Afghanistan,” Hemat added.
A number of Afghan citizens also by praising Turkey for its role in Afghanistan say Afghanistan government should further expand its relations with the respective country and make use of its experiences for development of Afghanistan.
It is worth mentioning that Turkey has provided aids and assistance to Afghanistan in various fields as security, economic, higher education, ANP training and reconstruction and peace processes in the past 16 years.
Suraya-Raiszada
