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  • Afghanistan: The Turkish advantage

    Afghanistan: The Turkish advantage


    As Turkey takes over ISAF's Kabul Command, there are hopes that Turkish sensitivities to local cultural and religious sentiments will give it an advantage in winning over the hearts and minds of Afghans.


    By John C K Daly for ISN Security Watch (30/04/07)

    While many countries have a larger military presence in Afghanistan than Turkey, Ankara is now responsible for the critical Kabul theater, the most important of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) commands.

    Turkey's cultural and religious affinities with the Afghans give its troops a unique advantage over the other ISAF contingents from 37 nations. Given the projected Taliban spring offensive, Turkish sensitivities to local cultural and religious sentiments in Afghanistan's capital may well give them an influence that far exceeds the other 36 nations' troops.

    Turkish presence in the capital has deep historic roots dating back to the time of Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic, who during the 1920s and 1930s sent doctors, educators and support personnel during the reign of King Amanullah Khan despite Turkey's own problems in establishing its independence.

    The country is drawing upon five years' experience in again commanding ISAF forces in the capital and building upon success from their first year of the ISAF's deployment.

    Less than a month after the 11 September attacks in the US, the Turkish Grand National Assembly, in accordance with Article 92 of the Turkish Constitution, passed Resolution 722 allowing deployment of Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) to Afghanistan.

    Turkey's initial contribution to the ISAF began in 2002 with 276 troops. From June of that year until February 2003, TSK General Major General Hilmi Akin Zorlu commanded the ISAF's presence in and around Kabul under UN Resolution 1413. During that time, Turkey's troop presence swelled to 1,300, with the US State Department designating Turkey as the ISAF's "lead nation."

    Zorlu brought substantial international experience to the position, having previously commanded the Multinational Peace Force South-Eastern Europe Brigade (SEEBRIG) in Bulgaria as well as heading the Plans and Policy Division at TSK headquarters in Ankara. A signal of the success of the Turkish approach was the fact that on 3 November ISAF forces, after consultations with the Afghan Interior Ministry, felt sufficiently sure enough about the security situation to lift the nighttime curfew, allowing Kabulis to venture into the streets in the evening for the first time since 1979.

    During its first ISAF command, the TSK tackled 175 civil service projects and trained units from Afghanistan's national guard. Under Zorlu, the ISAF also established two radio stations: Radyo Turkiyem and Sadahje Azadi (Voice of Freedom).

    On April 6 this year, the TSK took over the ISAF Kabul mission from France, which had held the post since its inception last August.

    During the transfer ceremony, Turkish Brigadier General Kasim Erdem, promised to continue to closely cooperate with Kabul Governor Haji Din Mohammad in the same spirit as his predecessor, outgoing commander Brigadier General Patrick de Villiers of France, who also attended.

    While the Turkish forces would be guided by Ataturk's injunctions of "peace at home, peace abroad," Erdem added that "we will do our best to put another brick in the wall that has been built for maintaining security and stability in the area served by the Kabul Regional Command.

    "Our duty is to expand the influence and authority of the Afghan government with the help of the Afghan national forces, to restore stability and security in Kabul, to help Afghanistan become a self-sufficient state in line with today's structuring and to sustain regional stability."

    Turkey's takeover of the ISAF's capital mission comes at a critical time for NATO. Analysts are nervously predicting an upsurge in violence in a projected Taliban spring offensive. New tactics, most notoriously suicide bombings - previously unknown in Afghanistan - are complicating the picture. The country remains a myriad patchwork of competing clans and cultures, while the drug culture's profits, estimated in the tens of billions of dollars, help fuel the insurgency.

    UK forces in the volatile Helmand province have already tacitly acknowledged their inability to quell poppy production, sending out a radio broadcast stating that soldiers from the ISAF and the Afghan army "do not destroy poppy fields" and that they "do not want to stop people from earning their livelihoods."

    As the ISAF adjusts its pragmatic goals, the value of a Muslim force pacifying the capital, with a decades-old history of assistance, is worth its weight in divisions. While the volatile eastern and southern provinces are subject to a certain amount of international pressure, the capital as the center of security and reform remains key to the ISAF's success or failure. Turkey's command of Kabul gives NATO a unique opportunity to provide security from foreigners that are nevertheless "believers," quelling indigenous perceptions of "infidels" under command of the "Great Satan" interfering in local affairs. The Turkish presence is as great a publicity coup for NATO as it is detrimental to fundamentalist efforts to rally support against a "Crusader" occupation.
    Tracing Turkey's Afghan role

    The Afghan mission, NATO's first deployment outside of Europe or the US, is the alliance's biggest ground operation in its history with 35,000 soldiers currently in the country. The majority of these troops hail from the US and the UK. The ISAF currently has five regional commands in Afghanistan: north, south, east, west and Kabul. The ISAF's headquarters are at Camp Warehouse, 16 kilometers east of Kabul.

    According to de Villiers, the ISAF's mission in Kabul is to hold Taliban insurgents in check while winning the hearts and minds of the local population by pursing small development projects in conjunction with local leaders to improve living standards while respecting local religion and culture.

    The Turkish Armed Forces will lead the Kabul Regional Command mission until 6 December, when Italy takes the helm until August 2008.

    Following Turkey's assumption of Regional Command-Command Kabul this April, Ankara sent nearly 400 additional personnel, including 65 officers and non-commissioned officers to support the Kabul Regional Command's logistics, intelligence and communication operations. In a military first, a female captain will also serve in the new Turkish contingent. Turkey has also dispatched two Black Hawk helicopters for transport and medical evacuation.

    Each day French, Italian and Turkish ISAF Regional Command-Command Kabul troops mount 60 patrols on foot in the capital. In a sign of public trust, the Turkish troops, unlike their French and Italian counterparts, do not wear body armor.

    Turkish assistance extends beyond purely military aid. Turkish Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) project, scheduled to last for five years, began operations in November 2006, providing aid in reforming the regional administrative and judicial systems, training police and infrastructure improvements.

    Beyond the PRT assistance, in the aftermath of early April heavy floods and avalanches that killed hundreds and left thousands injured in Afghanistan, Ankara dispatched a team of Health Ministry and Turkish Red Crescent officials to the afflicted regions, along with 800 blankets and 80 tents.

    The first Afghan-Turkish school was opened in 1996 in Afghanistan, the year that the Taliban captured Kabul; there are now six.
    Advantage, Turkey

    Turkey's assistance to Afghanistan extends far beyond pacifying the capital. Since 2002, Turkish assistance has built or renovated three hospitals and eight health clinics, which have treated more than 650,000 Afghans. Education has also benefited, as Turkish assistance has restored 27 elementary and secondary schools.

    Private enterprise has also assumed a major role in Afghan reconstruction, with 21 major Turkish firms pumping more than US$1.5 billion into construction and investment projects since 2002. More than any other ISAF member, Turkey provides Afghans with a secular, democratic Muslim model of development based on their country's experience, which, in the end, may prove more resonant and important than tanks, bombs and missiles.


    Dr John C K Daly is a Washington DC-based consultant and an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute.

    Related ISN Publishing House entries

    ISN Publishing House: Cultural Intelligence and the United States Military

    ISN Security Watch - Afghanistan: The Turkish advantage
    Would this make any difference?

    While Islam may be a common denominator and closer to the Afghanis compared to the western troops, yet, notwithstanding what Daly has to state, the culture, language and habits would be totally different. It is only a western eye that feels that because a nation is Islamic, all factors must be common. That is not so. The Bangaldeshis have a totally different mindset to the Pakistanis and that is why they split. Likewise, the Mohajirs of Pakistan, though of the same country ie British India are no way liked (except grudgingly by the Punjabi Pakistanis and that is why they are still referred to as Mohajirs or refugees! Of course, the Pakistanis will give a religious connotation to the word Mohajir, but in actuality it is to indicate that they are different and refugees to boot! )

    The Afghans would be closer in ethnicity and ethos to the Persians and Arabs. Would the historical issue of the Turks having ruled over these people and not always in a benevolent way play on the minds of the Afghanis or worse still, exploited by the Taleban and other cahoots to negate the advantage of an Islamic force being in position?

    This article again highlights the issue that western author see a silver lining in a black cloud and go ecstatic and close their mind to the actual problems that are there to be solved.

    The issue is economic.

    Take the example of India. The economy is booming and encouraged by western perceptions which is going gaga over it, many Indians are seeing a superpower status, forgetting that there are many who are still being left out of the pie and who can become millstones. It is only when everyone is taken along can India become what it can become.

    Likewise, unless Afghanistan's economic backwardness is addressed and solved, one could bring in all the Islamic powers to bear on it and still there will be the problems that manifest itself there.

    Islam is only a part of the problem. It is not the Main problem.

    Islam cannot fill the stomach.

    It can only fill the minds and divert it from the stomach!
    Last edited by Ray; 04 May 07,, 18:03.


    "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

    I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

    HAKUNA MATATA

  • #2
    Ray Reply

    Brigadier,

    Great post!

    "This article again highlights the issue that western author see a silver lining in a black cloud and go ecstatic and close their mind to the actual problems that are there to be solved."

    We do seem at times to be grasping at straws for good news, particularly indications that we are becoming "culturally attuned". Perhaps this will be an instance of such. I must say that I wasn't particularly overwhelmed by the ACTUAL contributions made by Turkey in the examples provided and can't forget that they refused a role in the UNIFIL contingent last summer (SMART!) when I felt that their force contribution would be both significant and effective.

    Your point about the ethnic divisions within Islam is well-taken. Afghanistan has a turkic population of less than 3% (according to the C.I.A. World Factbook). Uzbek and Turkmen are minor languages. Most Afghans are Sunni, however, particularly in the east. So, it's difficult to say just how culturally attuned the Turk commander might be. Still, he sounds like a well-rounded commander with good international experience as well as significant operational planning experience. I'm sure that he's adept.

    In some ways, the ISAF mission around Kabul is critical. I do not believe that the war can be won in Kabul, but it can certainly be lost. To that end, maintaining the stability of the capital is paramount to the legitimacy of the Afghani government. So far (knock on wood) that's been the case- and must remain so.
    "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
    "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

    Comment


    • #3
      May I be bold enough to say that India has more cultural affinity with the Afghans (Pastuns) than Turkey, but the US has kept it out for strategic reasons! ;)

      India is currently involved in non military activities Afghanistan including building of roads by the GREF (General Reserve Engineering Forces) which builds border roads in India.


      "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

      I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

      HAKUNA MATATA

      Comment


      • #4
        Ray Reply

        "May I be bold enough to say that India has more cultural affinity with the Afghans (Pastuns) than Turkey, but the US has kept it out for strategic reasons!"

        Hmmm... That cultural affinity with the Afghans might go a long way to eliminating any mis-begotten notions of "strategic depth" for Pakistan, eh sir?

        Very tricky, Brigadier! You've my encouragement to take over the N.A.T.O. mission at any time. Thank you, indeed!:)
        "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
        "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

        Comment


        • #5
          I don't think the US will allow India into the fracas for the simple reason is that Pakistan's sensitiveness about India may lose the US a frontline ally!

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Ray View Post
            Would this make any difference?
            ...
            The Afghans would be closer in ethnicity and ethos to the Persians and Arabs. Would the historical issue of the Turks having ruled over these people and not always in a benevolent way play on the minds of the Afghanis or worse still, exploited by the Taleban and other cahoots to negate the advantage of an Islamic force being in position?
            While the plurality of Afghans (the Pathans) are closer to Iranian and Indian Sub-Continental people, large minorities of Afghans are of different Turkic ethnicities like Uzbek or Turkomen. Tajiks are ethnically closer to Turks, but culturally closer to Iranians. The particular Turks we are talking about would have never ruled Afghanistan - the Turks who ruled Afghanistan are ethnically Uzbek, Turkoman and Mughal.

            Afghans benefitted handsomely in Turkoman and Mughal services in Iran and India respectively. The "Father of Afghanistan", Ahmed Shah Abdali of the Durranis, started his career by assasinating his part-Turkoman lord and Shah of Iran Nadir Shah... and then ransacking the remains of the Mughal India. Lets just hope its not that kind of relationship Turks develop with the Afghans!

            Turkey's main advantage is in setting itself as an example of a modern and secular yet majority Muslim country. Practically speaking intially the Turk soldiers can pick up local Turkic languages with some effort, Turks bring good experience in mountain warfare to pursue the enemy, Turks have shown committment to international military operations (UN force in Korean War). The Turks have a moderately rich market of their own and can act as backdoor to Europe for some Afghan exports like fruits and crafts. Finally the Turks can include Afghanistan in their oil-pipleine plans to make economic use of the fields mainly in Afghanistan's North West.

            Quite practical and possible... but the security situation must first change for the better. Taliban is still too powerful, NATO still too hesitant to act decisively. In that regard Turkey won't be able to do anything proactive by itself.

            PS: Oh, and unless Afghans want to be helped there isn't anything anyone can do for them... with some people thats not always a given.
            Last edited by Kartajan; 05 May 07,, 18:40.

            Comment


            • #7
              Remember the kABULIWALAS?

              The Karzais and Abdullah Abdullahs?

              All Indian oriented!

              Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan - the Red Gandhi or the Frontier Gandhi?

              Comment


              • #8
                i i remember it right Afghanistan is the first country which recognised Turkey.
                Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy rather in power than use; and keep thy friend under thine own life's key; be checked for silence, but never taxed for speech.

                Comment


                • #9
                  A dated article of Khalilzad

                  http://www.sam.gov.tr/perceptions/Vo...yKhalilzad.pdf


                  "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

                  I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

                  HAKUNA MATATA

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    it is not only the religion or being a good exemple etc.

                    to understand the advantage of Turkish influence in Afghanistan i think you have to study History without prejudices.
                    Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy rather in power than use; and keep thy friend under thine own life's key; be checked for silence, but never taxed for speech.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Much ado about nothing. Sizable portions of the populace are Shiite, and the majority of the populace (Pathans) aren't Turkic. The Talibs will kill a Turk as readily as a Canadian. The Turks wanna hump the Hindu Kush with with the Canucks, Limeys and Yanks, we'll have something to kvetch about.
                      Cato

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by cato View Post
                        Much ado about nothing. Sizable portions of the populace are Shiite, and the majority of the populace (Pathans) aren't Turkic. The Talibs will kill a Turk as readily as a Canadian. The Turks wanna hump the Hindu Kush with with the Canucks, Limeys and Yanks, we'll have something to kvetch about.
                        Cato
                        i think the most important error is the way we look.

                        we are trying to explain with Turkic ethnicities or islam etc...

                        Turkish advantage is hard to explain. its almost nothing to do with Islam, or Turkic ethnicities or etc.

                        its a grand total of all of these factors plus a very good reputation.
                        Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy rather in power than use; and keep thy friend under thine own life's key; be checked for silence, but never taxed for speech.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Big K,
                          So what you are saying is that the Turkish Army's presence will be more effective than other ISAF members because the Turks look less "Western"? Most Turks I've met look like they could be from Greece, Southern Italy, or Spain. What intangibles do you mean? As I stated, I think Turkey's relationship to Afghanistan is tangenital at best. Sharing common ethinc heratige with a small portion of the populace hardly speaks to some great inherant comity. Turks may be Sunnis, but sharing a common faith carries little water with the Pathans, who are EXTREMELY xenophobic. I would also dare to say that the Islam as practiced by most Turks would be an alien thing to the Deobandi puritainism practiced by the bad guys. No doubt the Turkish army is good, but I still can't see how Turkey is somehow naturally qualified to operate in Afghanistan.
                          Cato

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by cato View Post
                            Big K,
                            So what you are saying is that the Turkish Army's presence will be more effective than other ISAF members because the Turks look less "Western"? Most Turks I've met look like they could be from Greece, Southern Italy, or Spain. What intangibles do you mean? As I stated, I think Turkey's relationship to Afghanistan is tangenital at best. Sharing common ethinc heratige with a small portion of the populace hardly speaks to some great inherant comity. Turks may be Sunnis, but sharing a common faith carries little water with the Pathans, who are EXTREMELY xenophobic. I would also dare to say that the Islam as practiced by most Turks would be an alien thing to the Deobandi puritainism practiced by the bad guys. No doubt the Turkish army is good, but I still can't see how Turkey is somehow naturally qualified to operate in Afghanistan.
                            Cato
                            infact the same thing with the why Turkish army have the best solutions in Somali and Kosovo and will probably in Lebannon.

                            Turkish soldiers are mostly coming from villages like in Afghanistan, maybe they are well trained but still more villager than city-man.

                            yes the same faith also will help but this not the main thing...

                            i dont know how to explain this in English but theres a word in Turkish: Racon=
                            the accepted way of doing sth. this is one of the most important thing in Turkey too.

                            our soldiers know whats "racon" and are sensible about local customs, local sensivities..

                            for exemple in Turkey with only one little look to a "wrong" place in a "wrong" time, you can cause a fight.

                            thats not because we are untolerant people but theres some sensivities, ethichs, morals, local unwritten laws etc.

                            you have to respect these.

                            westerners can not do this even with their most ambitious effort.

                            but we can...

                            Ethnic groups of Afghanistan
                            42% Pashtun
                            27% Tajik
                            9% Hazara
                            9% Uzbek
                            4% Aimak
                            3% Turkmen
                            2% Baloch


                            infact if you look at the Turkic History you can see many old states founded in that area so even with Pashtuns we have great historical connections, the others are already Turkic(tajiks, Hazara etc...)
                            Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy rather in power than use; and keep thy friend under thine own life's key; be checked for silence, but never taxed for speech.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Hephthalite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

                              they are Pashtuns, the hephhalites...wikipedia says the first written source is a Chinese one and states them as a Turkic Tribe.

                              see there was many tribes, some of them you call "Huns" some of them you call "Oğhuzs" some of them according to some sources "Mongols"

                              we are all brothers and our blood says us something even in this century...
                              :)
                              Last edited by Big K; 09 May 07,, 19:30.
                              Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy rather in power than use; and keep thy friend under thine own life's key; be checked for silence, but never taxed for speech.

                              Comment

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