Turkey has no plan to send more troops to Afghanistan

Turkey has already made all the necessary efforts in Afghanistan to help restore peace in that country, has no plans to send additional troops, the ministry said in a statement.

There are currently nearly 240 soldiers in the region, a further nine-member delegation in the Afghan capital conducting construction work at the Kabul Airport, and three helicopters that had been requested would leave for Afghanistan soon, the sources said.

On Monday, the US Ambassador to NATO, Nicholas Burns, said that Turkey and other NATO allies not engaged in Iraq could send further forces to Afghanistan. The Interim government in Kabul has also asked NATO to deploy more troops in the lead up to elections in September.

Turkish diplomat Hikmet Cetin is also in Afghanistan as NATO’s top civillian representative in the country.