Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Monday held phone calls with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and his United States counterpart Anthony Blinken, during which they discussed the latest situation in Afghanistan, according to diplomatic sources.
In separate phone calls, Çavuşoğlu also exchanged views on Afghanistan with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod, Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlić-Radman.
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 the airport as frantic Afghans searched for a way out.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Sunday that, "The Taliban have won with the judgment of their swords and guns, and are now responsible for the honor, property and self-preservation of their countrymen," after fleeing the country as the militants entered the capital virtually unopposed, saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed. The ensuing hours saw hundreds of Afghans desperate to leave flood Kabul airport.
"Today is a great day for the Afghan people and the mujahideen. They have witnessed the fruits of their efforts and their sacrifices for 20 years," Mohammad Naeem, the spokesperson for the Taliban's political office, told Qatar-based media outlet Al-Jazeera TV. "Thanks to God, the war is over in the country."
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 United States and others at a cost of billions of dollars, melted away.
