Beginning with the Western and Islamic worlds, Afghanistan has not received the care it needed, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday.
Addressing reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul, Erdoğan said that there are currently 300,000 migrants in Turkey, dismissing claims by the opposition that Turkey is hosting 1.5 million Afghan refugees.
"If needed we can meet with the Taliban", he also said adding that "there is a case, the fact, and when there is a knock on the door on this issue, we open our door and conduct our negotiations."
"We have shown the necessary effort in terms of both infrastructure and superstructure in Afghanistan with all our means, and we are still continuing our work", Erdoğan added.
U.S. President Joe Biden ordered the American military to withdraw from Afghanistan before Sept. 11, 2021, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the U.S. by Taliban-backed al-Qaida.
The Taliban declared the war in Afghanistan over after taking control of the presidential palace in Kabul, while Western nations scrambled on Monday to evacuate their citizens amid chaos at Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport as frantic Afghans searched for a way out.
It took the Taliban just over a week to seize control of the country after a lightning sweep that ended in Kabul as government forces, trained for years and equipped by the U.S. and others at the cost of billions of dollars, melted away.
The Taliban swept into Kabul on Sunday after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, bringing a stunning end to a two-decade campaign in which the U.S. and its allies had tried to transform Afghanistan.
Underlining that new realities have emerged in Afghanistan, Ankara says it will move forward accordingly while keeping communication with all relevant actors open.
