Turkish President Erdogan has said talks have been held in Kabul with the Taliban about running the airport in the Afghan capital after the Americans left on Aug. 31. He said the Taliban had proposed.
The Taliban only want technical assistance and no Turkish soldiers. Erdogan said Friday morning, shortly after the bloody attacks outside the entrance to Hamid Karzai airport, that he has not yet decided because there are many risks involved.
Turkey has already offered the Taliban to keep the airport running. But the Taliban didn’t seem to be interested in that at the time. Turkey has previously been in charge of the airport for six years as part of NATO’s mission in Afghanistan.
At the beginning of this month, before the Taliban overran Kabul surprisingly quickly, Turkey has offered to run the airport after the end of the NATO mission.
But Ankara wanted money from the US and also asked Washington to leave specific “defensive military installations” at the airport. In addition, Ankara demanded that the Turkish mission be given international status first.