TOKYO
Turkey's ambassador to Kabul, Basat Ozturk has said that Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) could not take place of NATO in Afghanistan.
Talking to the AA correspondent on Monday on the occasion of "Tokyo Conference on Afghanistan" in Kabul, Ozturk said that the target of the conference was to provide a long-term socio-economic prosperity to Afghanistan.
Ozturk noted that international communities were uneasy about the future of Afghanistan.
NATO will hand over the lead role in combat operations in Afghanistan by 2014 and the international forces are worrying about not to have a "security vacuum" in the country, stated Ozturk.
Ozturk stressed that SCO was not able to substitute NATO in Afghanistan. "The organization cannot take place of NATO in that country because of it has a different organization structure. No one expects such a thing from the organization. Who will replace NATO in Afghanistan is not the point. The target is how Afghanistan is going to stand itself," said Ozturk.
Ozturk also stated that Turkey had made its widest contribution to Afghanistan with 200 million US dollars for the last 10 years.
Noting that Turkey and Afghanistan have a historical relations over centuries, "Afghanistan was the first country that recognized Turkey as a country during Turkish war of independence. So Turkey should not say why we are in Afghanistan?," said Ozturk.
