It's been almost a month since the Taliban's oppression of Kabul in Afghanistan. The Afghan conflict is also said to be a victory over the United States by countries such as China, Pakistan, and Iran, who have taken over the Taliban. In fact, Turkey, which is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), is among them.
Turkey has been stationed in Afghanistan as a member of NATO since 2002. Unlike the troops of Western countries, they are not engaged in combat and are rarely targeted by terrorist attacks because they are the same Muslim nation. It is largely because the government newspaper said, "I was never considered a member of the occupation army."
Turkey has not yet signed a formal agreement with the Taliban administration, as President Erdogan said. However, Turkey has been skeptical of its relationship with the Taliban due to allegations of support for Islamic extremists in Syria. China, which also approaches the Taliban, has only a profit and loss account with the Taliban, but Turkey shares Islamism and has a close ideological relationship.
China is cracking down on Islamist activities, partly due to the Uighur issue, but Turkey is allowed the activities of Taliban supporters, partly because the ruling party is devoted to Islamism. Last year, a video of a man who seems to be a Taliban supporter raising a flag and shouting "God is great" appeared in the Hagia Sophia, which was converted into a mosque, and the EU Parliament also asked questions about this matter.
The Turkish state news agency is part of the Taliban's promotional campaign for international approval. In fact, it publishes a series of coverage articles that would not be possible without the cooperation of the Taliban. The article on the weapons merchant in Kandahar, the Taliban's largest hub, is one of them. The merchant, who had sold wholesale firearms to the Taliban, plans to dispose of his weapons and close the store as the war ends.
The subheading "Taliban does not want to trade weapons" is added at the end, suggesting that the weapons possessed by the Taliban will not be available to the public. In other words, it represents the Taliban's claim that Afghanistan under the Taliban rule, which is a concern of each country, will not be a hotbed of terrorism.
Recently, they published an article visiting the village where the Taliban founder Omar was born. This is a Taliban lantern article about the origin of the former Taliban leader who ruled Afghanistan in this small village.
What about Turkey, while China is aiming for interests in Afghanistan? Turkey's ambassador to Afghanistan told the Taliban that investment by Turkish companies will continue.
However, compared to countries / regions where Turkey intervenes in earnest, such as Libya and Syria, there is less economic information. It can be said that Turkey's support for the Taliban is biased toward ideology and software compared to that of material China.
Erdogan, like the former Ottoman Sultan, believed himself to be the lord of the Muslim nations and continued to intervene in neighboring nations with Islamists as his vanguard. There is a composition of terrorism support involving economic interests such as Islamic State's dark crude oil trade.
Whether the Taliban is a terrorist organization or not is controversial, but as an Islamist force, the Erdogan administration was inevitable. It will further widen the gap between the United States and other NATO countries.
Roni Namo
Ethnic writer living in Tokyo. Since he encountered the Kurdish problem while attending college, he has continued to cover and analyze political movements of ethnic minorities, mainly Kurds. He was taught Kurdish (Kurdish) by Kurds and is probably the only Japanese who can use Kurdish. He has completed the translation of a Japanese novel into Kurdish (unpublished). Currently focusing on learning Arabic. He has also learned Persian and Turkish. He is training to become a multilingual journalist.
