Turkey, the only Muslim member of NATO, could increase the number of soldiers it is willing to send to Afghanistan because of the vast security and reconstruction work needed in the war-torn country, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said Sunday.
"I am not in a position to give a definite number, but it is possible that 90 troops may not be sufficient," Ecevit said in an interview with the state-run TRT channel.
"Even if the war comes to an end, there is a lot of work to be done in Afghanistan," he added.
Ankara said earlier this month that it would send some 90 elite troops to Afghanistan to help in training opposition soldiers and carrying out humanitarian missions.
It has also expressed readiness to take part in a potential post-Taliban peacekeeping force as long as the force is organized under UN auspices.
Ecevit said one of the tasks Turkish troops could handle was to ensure the protection, security and technical services at an airport outside Kabul.
"It would be natural for us to assume a duty there at the airport. There are also several social and economic issues to be addressed," he said.
"That is why the number (of troops) may increase, but I hope there will no longer be a need for armed war," the prime minister said, adding that there was no date set for the dispatch of Turkish troops.
But, Ecevit said the foremost problem that needed to be tackled in Afghanistan was the lack of an administration following the defeat of the hardline Taliban militia at the hands of opposition forces.
"This must be resolved at once. It seems most of our contribution will be in this area," he told reporters as he was leaving the TRT building.
Turkey backs the Uzbeks and other Turkic-speaking ethnic minorities in the north of Afghanistan, who fill the Northern Alliance ranks.
It has close ties with key Northern Alliance commander Abdul Rashid Dostum, who lived in exile in Turkey before returning to Afghanistan in April – Ankara (AFP)
