::. Interview
Exclusive Interview with Brig. Gen. David W. Allavin
By Sher Alam Saqib
Q: I would like to begin with hearing from you about the achievements of NTM-A since its establishment in 2009 with regards to training Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan National Police (ANP).
Brig. Gen. Allvin: Well, I can speak with a limited amount on the overall Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police. I know since Lt Gen. Caldwell stood up to the command in November of 2009, there have been great gains throughout the army and police not only in numbers but also in quality of the army and police. In the summer of 2010, President Karzai stated that he did not want the Afghan, what was it, the Afghan National Army Air Corps and he wanted it to be Afghan Air Force.
So now you often hear the Afghan National Army, the Afghan National Police and the Afghan Air force. The Afghan Air Force is still part of the Afghan National Army. So as such, it has been growing along the ANA and the ANP. I would say some of the greatest gains in the command of all NTM-A since I have been here - I have been here since September 2010. There has been a lot of the equipment that has been delivered and a lot of the professionalization that has occurred, increasing literacy, which's very important, as you know, throughout Afghanistan, which helps provide self-sustaining and enduring capacity throughout the transition as it occurs several years in the future. I know there are many Gentlemen who are more up to speed on all the specific information on the soldier side of the Afghan National Army as well as the police, I can speak specifically a lot more in-depth to the Afghan Air Force.
Currently, in the Afghan Air Force, there are several different types of aircrafts. One is the MI17. That is the medium left helicopter that is very capable and is really perfect craft. Currently there are thirty-four for the Afghan Air Force. There are also the MI 35s, which is an attack helicopter that Afghan air force also flies. There are nine of the Mi35s. There are also C 27s, which are Italian-built fixed wing aircraft.
There are currently ten of those in the country as we speak. So the Afghan air force is really- it is developing its own capability but operating as well. So it is not just in training. For example, it was very, very well used during last year's parliamentary election, specifically the Mi17, to be able to get to far-flung areas across Afghanistan and do ballot delivery and retrieval. It was also very pivotal in some of the floods in Jalalabad and Kandahar last year, being able to support humanitarian relief.
In fact, last summer, four of the aircrafts went to Pakistan and supported their flood activities. So in that way, the Afghan Air Force, while it is developing, in my mind is doing something today to help the government of Afghanistan in its counter-insurgency. Specifically, the coalition is here. There are a lot of air power assets that coalition can bring to use. There are a lot of aircrafts that can do humanitarian relief and connect the people to supplies and those sorts of things. But I think there is a difference when the aircraft is actually Afghan aircraft and has an Afghan symbol on it and when the air crews are Afghans instead of Americans or coalition because the people of Afghanistan, I believe, have a decision to make every day, do we support the insurgency or do we support the government? So when you have something like the Afghan Air Force, which is developing, that shows it can connect the government of Afghanistan to the people, bringing backpack to schoolchildren or those sorts of things supporting humanitarian relief mission.
I think it really connects the people to the government. So while we are still developing Afghan Air Force - air force, in general, takes a longer time to develop because the skills and experiences take longer- but while they are developing, I think they are also proving to Afghan people that this is an air force the people can be proud of.
Now, in the future, in the very near future, a lot of the aircrafts that we are purchasing are going to be in the Shindand Airbase. I guess I should say very quickly there are three primary locations where Afghan Air Force has aircrafts now. One is here in Kabul. Many aircrafts are here in Kabul. They also have a wing in Kandahar. And the third wing is in Shindand. There are also aircrafts, Mi 17 aircrafts at the detachments in Mazar-e-Sharif as well as in Herat. But Shindand is very special because Shindand is going to be the place where all the Afghan aviators will be trained in the future. There will be a power training capability for both helicopters and fixed wing aircrafts. And that training should start in next 7-8 months. So again, when we are talking about self-sustaining and enduring capability; that is what Shindand represents because it enables the Afghans to be able to recruit, to be able to bring into the force, to develop their entire Air Force from start to finish. So I think one of the brightest parts of the future is Shindand air base.
Q: Could you say the current manpower of Afghan Air Force?
Brig. Gen. Allvin: Yes, currently there are approximately four thousand members of the Afghan Air Force. There is projected to be approximately eight thousand when the forces have done rebuilding. That will support a force of approximately a hundred and forty five different aircrafts, a hundred and forty five total aircrafts of different types. So eight thousand will be the end strength and currently there are four thousand right now.
Q: What is the timeframe for the eight thousand?
Brig. Gen. Allvin: Well, as opposed to Afghan National Army and the Police, where you hear that most of their growth will be done in the next year or so , Afghan Air Force will probably not reach its end strength until close to 2014 or 2015 and we will still be here until then. The reason why there is a slow growth of Afghan Air Force is because some of the aircrafts are coming into the inventory or even arrive until 2013 and 2014. So it does not make sense to have manpower there when the aircrafts are not there to fly or support. It will probably be 2014 timeframe before they reach full strength.
Q: When NTM-A was established, it was supposed to recruit and train about 300,000 ANA and ANP personnel by 2011, has it reached that target?
Brig. Gen. Allvin: We believe it is going to reach the target by this October, by this fall- that 305,000 – we believe that- that force is going to be able to be recruited. Now there are more people that want to join Afghan National Army and National Police than the training capacity is, which is a good thing, when we have more recruits wanting to join- join in defense of their country but we are on track throughout NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan to reach that current approved growth- 305,000 this year. So we are on track.
Q: Which one of the following problems do you see as the most daunting challenge to rebuilding ANA; corruption, widespread illiteracy, vanishing supplies, lack of discipline, desertion and drug use?
Brig. Gen. Allvin: Well, again I can speak primarily for the air force but I know– I know - something about Afghan National Army. Primarily, for the Air Force, I believe all those are challenges and perhaps the biggest challenge is to ensure just the general professionalization. So that comes in leadership development. A lot of those things that you have mentioned, when you have leadership development, you can really tackle a lot of those problems- building the integrity.
So, that, I believe, is one of the biggest challenges we realize throughout this command, we have several programs in place to do that through the National Military Academy of Afghanistan. Every year it is getting more and more qualified applicants and so you get high-quality force. As you get high quality leadership, a lot of those challenges become more manageable. So in addition to increase in the quality of their recruits, there are several different professionalization initiatives within the command.
There is a course called the one uniformed course, in which they take those with higher education and with greater leadership potential and they will take them directly into the force and train them to be non-commissioned officers. So leadership development is probably one of the bigger challenges- when you say daunting- I tell you, it is one of those we realize for a couple of years now and we made really a great stride. So as we continue those leadership development programs, the leader deficit will shrink and a lot of all these other problems will be taken care of.
Q: ANA Manpower is said to be around 150,000 personnel and it is expected to reach 260,000 in the coming years until 2014, which is the end of withdrawal of foreign forces. Do you think Afghanistan it is a realistic goal and will we achieve this?
Brig. Gen. Allvin: Well, I know that the current approved growth for the Afghan National Army is one hundred and seventy one thousand- over one hundred and seventy one thousand. I know there has been- the minister of defense has requested a growth up to one hundred and ninety five thousand. I believe that is currently in the process of being approved, not exactly know where that level of approval process is. It is my belief that if that is indeed approved- one hundred and ninety five thousand is approved, that is certainly achievable. The two hundred and sixty thousand, to be honest, I am not familiar with that as an approved growth goal.
I honestly have not heard that as far as in the discussions. I know that the United States has stated that they are prepared to support the growth up to one hundred and ninety five thousand. Should that be the approved decision of international community -because of course it is NATO Training Mission so there needs to be an international consensus for that but should that be approved- I have no doubt that, as I mentioned with the increase in quality of recruits and quantity of recruits right in the training base, I believe that is certainly achievable.
The number for the growth of both the ANA and ANP is – the not yet approved growth - is 352,000. That is what currently being 352000. That includes a police force of one hundred and seventy seven, with the army of 195,000. Again from what I have seen from across the command, I believe those are achievable by the end of 2012. (To be continued)
Brig. Gen. David W. Allvin is the Commanding General, NATO Air Training Mission – Afghanistan, NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan (NTM-A) /Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, and Commander, 438th Air Expeditionary Wing, Kabul, Afghanistan.
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An Exclusive Interview with Pakistani Envoy to Afghanistan
By M. Zaki Shahamat, Mohammmad John Alirezayee
Your Excellency thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to visit you and raise some questions regarding the current state of bilateral relationship between the two countries and Pakistan's contribution in Afghanistan's reconstruction and rehabilitation.
Q.1. Within the last years there emerged some high-level political tensions between Kabul and Islamabad on the issue of cross-border terrorism and militancy, how do you see the Pak-Afghan relationship today?
Answer: Pakistan and Afghanistan are neighbours. A certain level of difference is always possible between neighbours which sometimes deteriorate to tension. Ideally, it should not happen but we live in an imperfect world. Unfortunately, there are elements who do not want to see good relationship between us and they expand fairly large resources on propaganda against Pakistan. However, at the end of the day, all of them will fail as people of the two countries will decide what they want to do. I would just give you a glimpse of our people to people contact: fifty-two thousand people cross the border between our two countries every day. Nobody could beat this concrete relationship with its ill-conceived propaganda.
Since restoration of democracy in Pakistan, our political relationship with Afghanistan has also turned a new page. We have joined hands to work together for a peaceful and economically developed Afghanistan. Progress and development in Afghanistan and ethnic harmony in this country is in our interest. Similarly, nobody will be affected from instability in Afghanistan more than Pakistan. Therefore, we have to work together and we have every intention of doing so.
Q.2. Pakistan has contributed to Afghanistan's reconstruction process; please put a comprehensive light on Pakistan's projects under implementation here and its role in Afghanistan's reconstruction process.
Answer: Pakistan has quietly extended support to reconstruction of Afghanistan since 2001. For example, over two thirds of senior officials in the Afghan central government today who could speak English or work with computers are trained in Pakistan.
Second, six thousand Afghan students attend colleges and universities in Pakistan. This does not include over 2,000,000 Afghan refugee children who attend primary and secondary schools funded by the Government of Pakistan.
Third, we have just started one thousand fully funded scholarships programme to Pakistani universities. Under this programme, the students will start leaving our professional colleges and universities this month.
Fourth, the first foreign bank to operate in Kabul after 9/11 was National Bank of Pakistan, which was followed by two other private Pakistani banks. The emerging banking sector of Afghanistan heavily depended upon Pakistan's human resource in its initial phase. Similarly, the telecommunication industry of Afghanistan drew Pakistani manpower, or Afghan human resource trained in Pakistan, in its nascent stage.
Fifth, the first foreign airline to start operations to Kabul after 9/11 was our national flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). PIA pioneered the opening of Afghanistan to international air traffic after 9/11.
Sixth, some 90% of Afghans who seek medical treatment abroad cross the border with Pakistan. The overwhelming majority of these patients are poor who get free medical treatment in our government or philanthropic healthcare facilities.
Seventh, Pakistan is also undertaking several reconstruction projects in Afghanistan in education, health and infrastructure development areas. Following are some of the major Pakistani projects in Afghanistan:
Rehman Baba School has been completed in Kabul, where 1200 students are receiving education. A hostel, to accommodate 1000 students, is being built for this school.
Torkham-Jalalabad Road was completed and on request of Afghan Government we are now converting it into the dual carriage way. This is the best road constructed in Afghanistan by any donner.
A state of art Allama Iqbal Faculty of Humanities at Kabul University is completed. We are now furnishing it.
A 400 bed Jinnah Hospital Complex is under construction in Kabul. This sprawling project will have 12 buildings which would include a nuclear medicine facility.
Nishter Kidney Hospital is near completion in Jalalabad.
A 200 bed Naib Aminullah Khan Logari Hospital is being built in Logar.
Sir Syed Science Faculty Block is being constructed in Nangarhar University, Jalalabad.
Liaqat Ali Khan Engineering Faculty Block in Balkh University, Mazar-e-Sharif is under construction.
Another half a dozen large projects, including two Eye Hospitals, Limb Centre at Badakhshan, two Nuclear Medical Centres in Kabul and Jalalabad are in the pipeline.
Q.3. Pakistan Army's offensive against Taliban miscreants in Waziristan is advancing, has it been a successful operation so far?
Answer: We have made good and speedy progress there. The whole terrorist infrastructure run by the foreigners and supported from abroad has been dismantled. We are not declaring victory against terrorism yet but we are on the right path and will be there in due course of time. Our nation is united in this struggle and a few thousand terrorists can't defeat a 170 million Pakistanis.
Q.4. On the issue of Taliban, do you think there are two Taliban factions, Pakistani and Afghani?
Answer: I always find this question very interesting. It is full of suspicion and apprehension. And I always respond to it with a question: are they doing anything different? If they are doing the same things how could they be different? As they say if it walks like a duck, quakes like a duck and looks like a duck, it is a duck.
Q.5. Barack Obama's administration has been pressurizing the government of Pakistan saying "Pakistan must do more", how do you understand this message?
Answer: The mantra of "do more" is meaningless in the circumstances. We are already doing the best we could do and we do it for ourselves not for the Americans or anybody else.
Q.6. How do you hail Afghanistan's recent presidential elections, according to your view, was that a democratic achievement?
Answer: The world should congratulate the people of Afghanistan for coming out and voting in conditions which were less than ideal. Each man and woman who showed up at a polling station on August 20, 2009 had made a statement. Democracy in Afghanistan is on the march and it is good omen for the region and the world.
Q.7. There is still concerns that some military agencies are involved in aiding and supporting Taliban, what do you think on this phenomenon?
Answer: Well on hears a lot of things from helicopters picking and dropping Taliban to weapon and IEDs being supplied to international mafia openly selling weapon in exchange for drugs but it is difficult to comment without any substantive information on these issues.
Q.8. We have witnessed that some countries have not observed balance in allocating funds for all Afghanistan's provinces, ignoring particular parts where a particular tribe is residing, is it true in describing Pakistan's share in Afghanistan's reconstruction process?
Answer: I can speak for Pakistan. We do not prefer on ethnic group or province over other ethnic groups or provinces. We want to be friends with everybody in Afghanistan and would like to see everybody benefit from our assistance. For example, we are taking special care that this policy is implemented in grant of scholarships, training course and development projects.
Q.9. Excellency ambassador, do you want to convey any message to the people of Afghanistan?
Answer: God in His infinite wisdom has placed us next to each others like twin brothers. Nobody could separate us to achieve their nefarious designs. I believe anybody who creates misunderstandings between our two countries is our common enemy because if they succeed both of us will fail. People and governments of our two countries should work together to march on the path of peace, stability and progress.
Your Excellency thank you very much.
Bio Data of Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistani Ambassador to Afghanistan
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Interview with Mr. Basat Ozturk, Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey in Afghanistan
M. Zaki Shahamat
Mr. Ambassador thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to interview you.
Q: Beginning with the first question, relations between Afghanistan and Turkey dates back to centuries, please explain the current level of relationship from your perspective.
A: Thank you very much. As you already indicated, the relationship between our two countries and our people dates back to centuries. These links are not based only on interaction between our peoples, we have strong shared cultural links, historic links. We share the same culture that is why the Turkish people feel themselves very closed to their Afghan sisters and brothers. And they do not forget that during the liberation war of the Turkish republic, in the beginning of 1920s the Afghan people with the people of the region helped the Turkish people in their struggle against invasion of imperialist forces. In fact at that time there was colonialism, the Ottoman Empire collapsed because colonial powers wanted to disintegrate and colonize vast parts of this empire. And the empire collapsed, however, out of the ashes of that empire the Turkish Republic emerged. It is important to highlight that it was the first successful liberation war against colonial powers in the beginning of the 20th century. In giving this struggle the Turkish people received support from their Afghan brothers and sisters, even if they were not so rich, the Turkish people does not forget this support. Of course the relations between the two nations did not start in the beginning of 1920s or in the context of Turkish liberation war. These two points can not define the full range of Turkish-Afghan relations. The Turkish republic after its foundation continued strong relationship, even the presence of Turkish embassy in Kabul is an indication of this strong relationship between our two countries because as you know it is one of the largest lands where embassies are located and in fact one of the most beautiful pieces. We have taken care of this land as like it is our own, this is where we still have signs from Amanullah Khan and pictures of his visit to Turkey, signs of visit by teams of Turkish doctors who came to train and educate Afghan medical students and doctors, also professors of political science, Turkish soldiers who came here to train the Afghan Army, so this relationship is so old. There was an interval in the last three decades, maybe, because of some foreign interventions in the country, but Turkey has never forgotten the situation of Afghans and has done everything possible to help them. With the arrival of international forces here Turkey also took its part and is trying to do the same in the long term. Our presence here is not aimed at occupying or killing people, it is to provide security, stability and prosperity to the Afghans. Specially, we are providing projects in areas of agriculture, health and education among others, but these three areas are very important to us. So we want to support once again, like in the 30s, to revive the Afghan education, agricultural and health systems.
Q: Earlier this year Foreign Minister Ahmet Davotoglu announced Turkey's commitment to double the size of its forces in Afghanistan, has that commitment been met, how many Turkish soldiers are currently present here?
A: in fact, the increase or the surge of troops is due to the fact that Turkey assumed regional command of ISAF. This is the reason why we had a surge in number of Turkish troops. Presently a Turkish brigadier general is in command of Kabul region, we took it from Italians and French, as you know. Currently there is a dominant number of Turkish troops but with full cooperation and coordination with the Afghan army, Afghan National Police, Afghan security agencies and intelligence units and, more importantly, with the Afghan people trying to secure the Kabul region. The number of our troops in that context is around 1700 with some fluctuations. The lead role for security missions is for the Afghan security personnel.
Q: Are you Training ANA and ANP soldiers?
A: Regarding the capacity building of Afghan security personnel, we have continuous training for Afghan police with more focus on Maidan Wardak province. We are training Afghans in line with International standards but led by national trainers, we have also trained police trainers in Turkey which means that we have conducted training of trainers for Afghan National Police. We are ready to increase this capacity based on demand conveyed by our Afghan partners. Also, we can increase this capacity by opening an extra PRT and bringing in more police training officers and increase the capacity for police training in our second PRT which we aim to open in another province, probably in Shiberghan or any other part of the northern region, of course if possible. We strongly intend to do something for the north, this decision will be based on what circumstance dictates. I want to stress that this second PRT will not be dealing only with police capacity promotion, it will carry wide-range of civilian activities in three most important areas I outlined in answer to your first question. It is important to let your readers know that Turkish PRTs are not dominated by military, and are not managed by military. The Turkish PRT model is exclusive which is managed by civilians and overseen by diplomats from our ministry of foreign affairs.
Q: President Obama announced deployment of additional 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, hoping other NATO member states to complete the shortfall of troops Gen. McCrystal has asked for, is Turkey ready to increase its forces beyond the current commitment?
A: I think first of all we should remember that Turkey is now having the responsibility of one out of five regional commands in Afghanistan. The Kabul command may seem small in terms of area but in terms of population and political importance it is a more sensitive and important command because the eyes of the world is first and most on Kabul. This is an important responsibility the Turkish forces are now fulfilling. As I said before, so far we have done a lot to train national police and the national army officers. Our approach is focused more on local responsibility; we can train the Afghan army and police forces. The increase in number of troops alone will not mean so much if it is not complemented with necessary tools in the context of reconstruction, in the context of economic development, so there should be real investment in Afghanistan. I think the international community should do more to show concrete examples of economic development. In addition to roads we need some infrastructure which is going to start with power plants and electric power solution lines, bringing new energy resources to the area and also maybe developing the economy through modern ways such as supporting the industry based on agriculture. We should have a much broader vision now, if we would really like Afghanistan and the Afghan people to develop. The increase in number of troops will not produce any meaningful result without complementing that with civilian reconstruction and economic development effort. This is the vision we share and will try to do everything possible in achieving this ideal. I repeat once again, increase in the number of troops alone is never sufficient. I think there are many NATO allies and European countries that are in a position to make more assistance to Afghanistan, but they don't have troops and so do not contribute significantly or visibly to any international fund or effort. I think those countries should be asked to do more because they should also fulfill share of the burden, if not with troops, then with their financial resources or any other possible means if they really like to be part of the international effort to stabilize Afghanistan.
Q: Do you think war is the means to achieve peace, or civilian assistance can bring satisfaction among the deprived parts of Afghan society?
A: I think we have a comprehensive approach here. First of all, I agree that the word war is not the correct definition; we should rather use the term struggle or comprehensive effort which is aimed at stabilization and prosperity of Afghanistan. This approach should also have a regional dimension. In this context we believe that this comprehensive effort should include first and foremost providing security because without security and safety there can be no economic development, so it is almost of utmost importance. But providing security can not be achieved with war. Providing security requires, however, stationing of military troops or police forces but with cooperation with all different actors and without getting support of the Afghan people providing security would be difficult. So, there should be a situation where all the relevant actors and the Afghan people should be persuaded to believe that peace and stability is in the interest of the country and the region. In parallel we can increase our share in reconstruction arena, but both should go hand in hand twined with each other. There must come real difference in the Afghan society and Afghans should believe and see the difference in their lives, they should know that their life is going to change in the positive direction; that there will be no electricity problem in the future, that we should start solving infrastructural shortages like drainage systems, healthy water pipelines for the inhabitants of cities. So, Afghans should really see the good difference, the positive difference in their life both in terms of security and peace and increased economic activities and projects. This can be achieved when we have its regional complement. All Afghanistan's neighbors and all the regional countries should work together in bringing stabilization to the region beyond Afghanistan. Then, all these countries will benefit from this prosperity and peace together. In this context Turkey also intends to organize a regional economic summit with participation of all neighbors of Afghanistan in 2010. Although we know there are series of international conferences, but Turkey believes that it is of crucial importance to have the regional dimension which will include all neighbors of Afghanistan and also key regional countries and international partners where we can develop regional cooperation mechanism schemes and arrangements which will benefit all the regional countries. We will prepare this summit in the course of 2010.
Q: There are media reports which say that public support for foreign military involvement in Afghanistan is not that strong today in many major European countries; can you tell me about public support for Turkish military presence in Afghanistan?
A: again I will go back to my previous explanation and logic. Turkish people and government have never seen turkey's presence in Afghanistan only in the context of military troops here. This is only one factor and element among many in helping Afghanistan. that is why nobody in turkey is questioning the Turkish presence in Afghanistan. we have not come here with ISAF, we have been here since long ago, as I said in answer to your previous question, we have been here in 1920s and 30s when others were not here. We were here not for occupation, not for selfish interests, not for exploitation of any natural resource of Afghanistan, we were here as a friend, as a brother and sister country/people to help Afghanistan. this is the feeling in turkey that we want to help Afghanistan in these difficult times to bring to Afghanistan not only security but security in the broadest context which I have defined can only be possible with inclusion of other elements. Sustainable security is that in which we include other dimensions in political, economic, cultural fields. Turkish presence here is regarded by Turkish public as a total presence which did not start with coming of ISAF forces and which will not end up also with the departure of these forces. With will be a neighbor of Afghanistan without shared border for ever.
Q: as a member of NATO, do you think NATO member states have failed to allocate enough military and civilian resources to Afghanistan?
A: My statement was that those countries who are in a position to provide assistance should be urged to do more, either they are members of NATO or members of European Union or members of other regional organizations or members of the United Nations. Specially when talk about members of NATO, we should remember that many of those countries are also members of the European Union, so without naming any country or without making any criticism against any country I say that in this renewed international commitment to Afghanistan those countries who are capable of providing any help to Afghanistan should be urged to do more. As all know, Turkey has been doing its fair share, but of course will be open to do more in a creative and productive way on the condition that the kind of support is asked by the Afghan people. Any kind of additional support or assistance Turkey will make will be within the framework I have just defined, which means we will only do anything if it is in the interest of the Afghan people. We will increase our contributions in terms of productivity, efficiency and well reception.
Q: Please tell our readers about Turkey's developmental projects in the coming year…
A: In the year 2010 we will have additional projects with the same logic and vision I have defined. We will continue our developmental projects and we will seek and analyze other areas where turkey can make contribution in addition to a second PRT foresaid. Turkey will continue its training and capacity building programs and courses. There are so many things which we don't want to publicize or make propaganda out of, we have small assistance groups which come directly from Turkey on a voluntary basis like the team of Turkish doctors who visited Afghanistan's hospitals recently and helped patients. Also many Afghans go to get treatment in Turkey; there are many Afghan students who have been awarded full scholarships to attend Turkish universities for higher education in faculties of medical, law and political science. We also intend to provide vocational training programs for Afghanistan so that we can make a direct contribution to Afghanistan's economic development. We will invite more professional trainers from Turkey or we will take more Afghan students to Turkey for higher studies. In any case, Turkey will continue its support to Afghanistan by any means we have at our disposal.
Q: You have implemented many of your projects in Maidan Wardak province with Turkish PRT stationed there. Some donor countries have not observed balance in allocation of funds for Afghanistan's regions and provinces, don't you think your assistance is limited to only one province out of 34?
A: I can say that Turkey has implemented projects in 31 out of 34 provinces of Afghanistan with three province left so far. We will consider those three provinces in our future plans if security situation allows us. But the visibility of Wardak is of course because of the existence of our PRT in that province. Beyond that there are many schools, polyclinics, roads, bridges which are funded by Turkish assistance funds through agencies like Turkish Economic Development Assistance Agency (TIKA). So Turkey is very careful about this and does not discriminate in reaching to any of Afghanistan's ethnic tribes against any other. Our comprehensive approach in Afghanistan is that all Afghans from whatever ethnic background or from any sect are equally considered as Afghans.
Q: The third trilateral summit between president Karzai, President Zardari and President Gul was held in Ankara this year, please provide follow up details to our readers about Turkey's role to strengthen understanding and mutual ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan…
A: As you know we congratulated president Karzai in his reelection. To repeat once more, Turkey has supported Afghan people without hesitation, therefore, we respect Afghan choice, Afghan constitution, and Afghan dignity. Because of this close relationship president Karzai made his first foreign trip to Istanbul to attend the conference of OIC economic development committee last November. In the margin of this summit there was a mini summit too which was organized by president Gul. In that summit all neighbors of Afghanistan - except India and China because they are not members of OIC – met together on Afghanistan. In that summit the will to organize a regional summit with participation of all Afghanistan's neighbors was reaffirmed. In addition to that, there were also bilateral talks between our presidents. All agreed to hold the next trilateral meeting between Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey which is going to be organized this year as soon as possible. Of course we will have to take into account series of international conferences which are going to be organized until mid 2010. I think there is strong political will in all three countries to organize this summit at an apt time in 2010. As you know, from the beginning this was a Turkish initiative which won support from our partners (Afghanistan & Pakistan) for which we thank them. The trilateral summits are progressing very well and does not include only political dimension, we are adding other dimensions to these summits too. We believe this mechanism will strengthen understanding between these three countries as well as will constitute a strong basis for the advancement of our relations bilaterally and trilaterally. Even these three countries can form a core group to bring stability and security in the greater region. We have a positive vision about the outcome of these trilateral summits and the future of Afghanistan. The pessimism you mentioned exists in some European countries who provide troops for Afghanistan does not exist in Turkey. We believe in positive future of Afghanistan, we will not be demoralized and with no hesitation continue to support Afghanistan so that we produce concrete results here. This is aimed to benefit Afghanistan and the region as a whole. My message to the Afghan people is the following: know that Turkish people are with you in all circumstances, we will be with you forever.