Turkey’s government appears to have learned little from the troubles it has faced for deploying Syrian fighters in the wars in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, as media reports suggest it is now out to recruit mercenaries for its planned mission to secure Kabul’s airport after the US-led NATO mission completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Libya Review sources have confirmed that Turkey’s move to transfer mercenaries in Libya and Azerbaijan to Afghanistan is “supported by the change in Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that unlike the transfer of mercenaries to the Libyan and Nagorno-Karabakh wars, this time Turkey is more image-savvy and will recruit them through official contracts with Turkish private security companies.
Under the plan, the mercenaries would be tasked mainly with guarding the Kabul airport and government buildings without any involvement in operations against the Taliban.
Furthermore, Ankara is seeking a package of financial aid from its ally Qatar for the airport mission, so the expenses of “private security guards” might eventually emerge domestically as an important item in the package.
According to reports, Turkey and Qatar are now “working with full force to manage & operate Kabul Airport to enable them to transport Syrians from Libya and Azerbaijan to Afghanistan.”
Ankara denied transferring fighters to Nagorno-Karabakh, despite ample reports to the contrary. As for Libya, its initial denials were followed by acknowledgement, and the mercenaries eventually became an overt element of its Libya policy.
The Syrian fighters are now a fundamental issue in the UN-sponsored political settlement process, with Ankara seeking to use them as a bargaining chip to secure its influence in post-war Libya.
Turkey has transferred tens of thousands of Syrian mercenaries to western Libya, since it announced its intention to intervene militarily in Libya in December 2019.
The reports about Turkey mobilizing mercenaries for Afghanistan are hard to dismiss out of hand, given that Ankara has not faced any real international pressure or sanctions for using foreign fighters in other regional conflicts.
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