Former NATO envoy Çetin: Turkey can do more in Afghanistan

Çetin, who served in Afghanistan between 2004 and 2006, assessed the situation in Afghanistan, the possible challenges and opportunities in the region and also the role of Turkey in an exclusive interview with Today's Zaman after his visit to Afghanistan two weeks ago when he met with many officials, including the re-elected president, Hamid Karzai.

He said the West made some mistakes in Afghanistan and still continues to do so and to be able to withdraw from there within 18 months, as Obama’s new strategy envisages, is not realistic. However, if the West cooperates with Pakistan on the issue; succeeds in training the Afghan security forces and upgrades their equipment; increases economic assistance in coordination with the Afghan government; and, most importantly, wins the hearts of the Afghan people, the world can be hopeful about the future of the region. This new strategy also has to be supported by the new Afghan central government.

He recalled that every NATO member has been implementing its own caveats about where their troops can be deployed and their range of tasks, but for the success of NATO’s mission “five hundred soldiers with less caveats will be preferable to 5,000 soldiers with strict restrictions,” according to Çetin.

He added that Turkey is also imposing caveats and that it has its own reasons for doing so, but there are many other ways for Turkey to contribute the peace and stability in Afghanistan.

“The Obama administration is trying to carry out the mission in Afghanistan as a NATO mission and this is why they are asking for more troops from their alliances. They decided to send 30,000 more troops and they have the capacity to send even more, but they want to underline the international dimension of the operation and in my opinion it is a requirement. But I believe that what the Obama administration has been seeking exactly is certain number of soldiers with more flexibility rather than huge numbers of soldiers. The commander of the mission should be able to send a soldier in Kabul, for example, to the south when it is necessary. When I was there, sometimes it was a very big problem too. Those restrictions should come to an end,” he said.

Turkey can contribute with a whole package

Çetin underlined that Turkey has some restrictions as well, and he believes that it has reasons for these but thinks the contribution of Turkey can be increased by many ways.

“These are my personal opinions, but Turkey can contribute more to the training of the Afghan police and soldiers. The Afghan people want it too. For the time being, Turkey is training those soldiers in Turkey and sending them back, it supports the military academy in Kabul as well. But it can carry this mission further and train certain military units in Afghanistan; it can start with a battalion. Then it can enlarge this mission and can take full responsibility for training them. I think Turkey is the best country to do that,” he said.

Çetin recalled that NATO is working in five different regions in Afghanistan: the center, east, west, north and south. Every contributor country is assigned to a certain region. The commandership of the center is now the responsibility of Turkey for one year, but according to Çetin, Turkey can extend the time period of this command and can conduct the commandership of the center as long as the NATO mission continues.

He also emphasized that there are many other fields Turkey can make a contribution in, for example, it can increase its economic and social assistance to Afghanistan, it can send public administration experts to assist with the state formation.

“For example, there is a legal reform process going on in Afghanistan now and the Italians are conducting it. But I think Turkey is the best country to combine modern law and Shariah for Afghanistan and nobody will object to that,” he said.

According to him, if Turkey gives assistance in these areas as a package, its contribution to Afghanistan and the NATO mission will be even more valuable.

He also stresses that Obama’s strategy is also based on the training of the Afghan security forces and when the Afghans are ready to take control of the country the US will withdraw. It is hoping to do this within 18 months. According to Çetin to setting a withdrawal date is a necessity but 18 months might not be realistic.

“When I was there, almost 60,000 Afghan police had been trained but 60 percent of them were illiterate. To do training alone is not enough either, their equipment is also very important. In Afghanistan, it is impossible to reach certain regions by land transportation and helicopters are needed,” he said.

Çetin underlines that in order to increase the number of the soldiers and their flexibility, training Afghan security forces alone definitely is not good enough.

“If you don’t start rapid economic and social development it does not matter how much you increase the number of the soldiers, you cannot solve the problem. You should supply essential services, such as education and health, so you can destroy the sources and the bases of terrorism, if the locals do not support terrorism, it cannot survive,” Çetin stressed.

Unless there is social and economic development, nothing will change

He has a warning, however, about the social and economic development projects, saying that in order to ensure the sustainability of these development projects, the Afghan people should be involved in them.

“Let’s say a country decides to implement a development plan [in Afghanistan]. It gives the tender to firms from its own country or does the job via its own NGOs. All this assistance is categorized as aid to Afghanistan, but most of the money goes back to the original countries as high salaries or high costs. But if this aid comes from Afghanistan it will be cheaper and more effective. Another problem is that they are carrying out this assistance without getting the opinion of the locals and when al-Qaeda destroys them [the new infrastructure], for example a school, the locals do not defend it,” he said.

He underlined that for the success of the new strategy, the formation of the new Afghan government is very important. “Karzai should pick names which are effective and not involved in corruption,” he said.

But all these things are not enough, in order to win in Afghanistan, cooperating with Pakistan is also a must, according to Çetin.

“If you don’t cooperate with Pakistan, whatever you do, the Taliban will continue to be strong in Afghanistan. Pakistan should be assisted in controlling its borders and the madrasas in the north,” he stressed.

Çetin added that the Taliban are a part of the Afghan nation and you cannot get anywhere by excluding them. Their leaders might be in cooperation with al-Qaeda, but if you cooperate with the people, in time it will bring about the separation of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

“The Afghan people are unhappy about the existence of the al-Qaeda and to the extent that the hearts of the Afghan people are won by international community, it will be possible to clear al-Qaeda from the region. Afghan youngsters, Afghan women want peace and to be able to look into the future with hope,” he said.