Turkey speaking with deeds in Afghanistan, not with words

And that point is best seen through the eyes of the Afghan people who enjoy those services with respect and appreciation and through the Turkish diplomats and commanders on the ground in Afghanistan whose eyes sparkle with deep pride and passion.

Davutoğlu’s aforementioned remarks came last week in Shibirgan in northern Afghanistan as he attended the official inauguration of Turkey’s second civilian-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in the war-torn country.

The Turkish Jowzjan PRT is responsible for development and capacity building, including the training of the Afghan Security Forces, both in Jowzjan and Sar-e Pul provinces. The PRT is based on the successful civilian-led PRT model comprising both military and police components, implemented by Turkey in Wardak province since 2006.

As a matter of fact for quite a long time -- maybe even from the start when Turkey indicated its intention for establishing a PRT in Afghanistan -- ever since this relatively new concept evolved within NATO, certain allies, if not objected openly, have clearly resisted Turkey’s PRT presence within the area where Regional Command North (RC North) operates.

Like other regional commands in Afghanistan, RC North coordinates all regional civil-military activaties conducted by the military elements of the PRTs in their area of responsibility, under the operational control of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan.

The reluctance to Turkey’s presence in the north stemmed from the fact that there is a considerably high ethnic Turkic population in the nine provinces that are in the area of RC North’s responsibility: Namely Badakhshan, Takhar, Kunduz, Baghlan, Balkh, Samangan, Jawzjan, Sar-e Pul and Faryab.

The suggestion was that Turkey would use its relations with this population for gaining and broadening influence in the area which is considered to be key region by major powers.

Eventually, after seeing Turkish PRT’s concrete efforts and contributions to the people of Afghanistan in Wardak province, which has a majority Pashtun population, the feeling of hesitation changed to great respect and appreciation.

“The environment of confidence which we have created through our performance paved the way for the opening of the second PRT, as allies have seen that Turkey has no ‘agenda’ other than helping the Afghan people” a senior Turkish diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Today’s Zaman.

Turkey’s firm insistence that, using military means to bring stability to the war-torn country will not work unless these efforts are supported by strong civilian assistance to the country that enable it to stand on its own two feet, is also the reason behind its successful efforts on the ground.

While other allies PRT’s have been civilian-military hybrids, Turkey has constantly highlighted that its PRT’s have been civilian-led, in order to bring additional civilian capacity and complement the ongoing development efforts in that region.

“In an environment where military capabilities were regarded as a fundamental tool for resolution, Turkey has started stressing the importance of civilian contributions. As for today, the determining characteristic of civilian capabilities is recognized by everybody,” the same senior Turkish diplomat told Today’s Zaman.

“Turkey is working efficiently on the ground with its military and police forces as well as with its civilian experts. Our military unit is fundamentally a power of stability. It does not take part in counterterrorism operations. Nonetheless, the Kabul RC is playing an active role in maintaining security of Kabul and in transmitting assistance to local people,” the diplomat went on saying.

Last November, Turkey took over the rotating command of the leadership of the Kabul RC from France for a year and doubled its number of troops to around 1,876.

“TİKA [the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency] has carried out projects in 27 of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan and is strongly supporting our PRT’s,” the same diplomat noted.

As veteran diplomat, Turkey’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Basat Öztürk, has put it felicitously, Turkey has displayed its support for this war-torn country more with deeds than with words.

“We are here to be a part of solutions, not to be a part of problems,” Öztürk said last week in Kabul, while speaking with a group of Turkish journalists who followed the Kabul Conference and Davutoğlu’s visit to the country.

Türker Arı, the undersecretary of the Turkish embassy in Kabul and also the civilian coordinator of the Turkish PRT in Wardak, is one of those diplomats whose eyes sparkle when explaining what Turkey has achieved on the ground in Afghanistan.

“Wardak region is an agricultural region where around 150 tons of apples are cultivated every year. We have established two cold storage units, one in Maidan Shahr, the provincial capital and one in Sayidabad,” Arı explained to journalists with enthusiasm, underlining that this was the first time that modern technology has been used in Afghan agriculture.

The storage units were first operated in October 2009 and in eight month, 500 tons of apples were harvested and exported to India and Pakistan. In the past, Afghan people had to quickly sell their apples to neighboring countries with low prices as they couldn’t preserve them and then would have to buy their own apples from those countries later at higher prices.

As Turkey maintains that socio-economic development is one of the key factors to maintaining stability in Afghanistan, this is simply one concrete example of what Turkey has been doing on the ground. Last but not least, Arı emphasized the importance of having regular coordination among the embassy, TİKA officials and Turkish businesspeople in having achieved these concrete developments.