Turkey begins evacuating troops from Kabul airport

The Turkish military began evacuating its personnel from Kabul International Airport on Wednesday, according to a Turkish Defense Ministry statement.

The move came after Taliban officials rebuffed Turkish plans to station soldiers at the airport in a press briefing on Tuesday, saying Afghanistan did not need the presence of Turkish troops.

According to two sources, Turkey will only leave its special forces at the airport after transporting other military and civilian components beginning on Thursday morning to Islamabad.

The special forces are believed to undertake the cleaning and destruction of military equipment at the airport before the 31 August deadline to remove foreign troops.

Ankara is not evacuating the bulk of its embassy staff and the special forces are expected to protect the remaining diplomatic personnel in Kabul as well.

For the last few years, Turkey has been guarding the airport’s military section against external attacks. Earlier this summer, Ankara was close to striking a deal with the US to continue the mission but a sweeping Taliban takeover of the country dramatically changed the circumstances.

Two Turkish officials told Reuters earlier on Wednesday that the Taliban had asked Turkey for technical help to run Kabul airport after the departure of foreign forces, including Turkish troops.

However, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid denied that Taliban made such a request. “It isn’t correct,” he said in a written statement to the MEE.

The Turkish military said it had evacuated 1129 citizens from Afghanistan through Turkish military planes.

In a separate statement, Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would be in dialogue with all parties to help Afghanistan to reach stability.