The international community must act together and take responsibility to overcome the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Afghanistan, Turkey’s National Security Council said late Thursday.
Turkey has frequently voiced it is ready to support the Afghan people.
The Taliban victory in Afghanistan has not led to a dramatic refugee exodus but the country urgently needs humanitarian aid to prevent economic collapse and major upheaval, according to the United Nations.
Half a million people had been displaced within Afghanistan in recent months, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi said, a number which would grow if health services, schools and the economy break down.
Even before the Taliban launched its final push to seize control, 3 million Afghans were already displaced in a country struggling with drought and the COVID-19 pandemic and where nearly half the population was receiving some form of aid.
The UNHCR said recently that up to half a million Afghans could leave their homeland by the end of the year in a worst-case scenario.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told a live broadcast on NTV recently that the best way to solve the Afghan migrant crisis is to solve the conflict domestically to ensure that people are not forced to leave their homes.
Some 570,000 people migrated in the past year, while 3 million fled Afghanistan in 2020, Çavuşoğlu said, adding that economic problems were the main reason behind the migrations. He said it is crucial to also provide assistance to neighboring countries such as Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Iran.
Furthermore, Turkey’s top diplomat said that a humanitarian and security crisis in Afghanistan could have effects throughout the world.
The National Security Council also touched upon the crisis in Syria, saying that supporting acts that harm civilians and stability will spoil fragile balances in the region while also preventing reaching a permanent solution.
Another issue on the council’s agenda was the unilateral acts of Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration. It said that supporting these unilateral acts will deepen differences in the region.
Furthermore, Turkey will do its part regarding climate change as it did before in every global issue, said the National Security Council. The issue of climate change has been high on Turkey's agenda since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said during the recent U.N. General Assembly in New York that Ankara will submit the Paris climate deal to Parliament for ratification.
Turkey will take a leading role in combating climate change globally and is poised to ratify the Paris Agreement on climate before the Glasgow summit in November, Erdoğan said Monday.
“We will have completed the ratification process (of the Paris Agreement) before the Climate Change Summit in Glasgow in November,” Erdoğan said after a nearly three-hour Cabinet meeting at the Presidential Complex in the capital Ankara.
The country signed the 2015 deal, along with 175 other countries, in 2016, the year it came into force. However, it stopped short of implementing it, along with other countries like Iraq, Iran, Libya and Yemen, pointing out that it was included in the list of developed countries party to the treaty. Ankara sees this inclusion as unfair due to Turkey’s status as a developing country, which means it would face a huge financial burden in implementing the climate change commitments stipulated in the deal.
