Esma MURAT – Harun UYANIK / ISTANBUL (DHA) – PRESIDENT Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a statement at Ataturk Airport before his visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. “The Taliban has offers us to operate the Kabul Airport. We have not made a decision yet on this issue,” Erdogan said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke at the press conference held at Ataturk Airport before his visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina. President Erdogan said, “We nationally condemn the disaster, that comprehensive terrorist attack that took place in Kabul yesterday. It is certain that 72 people have died so far. Among them, of course, there are members of Taliban also died. DEASH has claimed such a disaster. Daesh has taken this step in such a process reveals that what a dangerous organization it is in the region and in the world. In this heinous attack, it has become clear how important the security is in Afghanistan. Our priority for the moment is the evacuation of our citizens from Afghanistan. This intensive evacuation efforts are continuing. We have meticulously made the necessary plans for our citizens who want to return to our country from Afghanistan. Our citizens, who want to come, are now gradually returning to our country. We have successfully carried out these evacuations under extraordinary conditions at the airport so far. In line with this decision, we will complete the evacuations as soon as possible. In this regard, our assigned units are taking these steps without the slightest complacency.”
Erdogan said, “We do not have the luxury of getting permission from anyone to meet with whom, when and where. We have now moved our embassy to the military section inside the Kabul airport. Our embassy carries out such activities in the military department there, and our friends held the first meeting with the Taliban, which lasted three and a half hours, under the supervision of our embassy. In the next period, if necessary, we will have the opportunity to hold such meetings here again. We are in an effort to carry out the process in a healthy way with such negotiations.”
Erdogan continued:
“Of course, we have frequent meetings with the Chancellor right now. It is obvious that they are too late for some things. Deciding to work with Turkey is an overdue decision. We didn’t leave Afghanistan when everyone else left Afghanistan. We remained at Kabul Airport in Afghanistan. We continued the process in the most ideal way. Which country has the greatest immigration pressure right now? Turkey. These are the terrors of lies I always state. They are spreading false terror. Why? What they say is, there are currently 1.5 million Afghan refugees in Turkey. I’m giving you the official number. Currently, the number of unregistered immigrants registered in the records of our Ministry of Interior is 300 thousand. Mr. Kemal and those who follow him said that it is 1.5 million. These are all lies. There is no such thing, and we are very sensitive about immigration.”
