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Turkish President Arrives for Talks in Tajikistan
DUSHANBE, Nov 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer arrived in Tajikistan Wednesday for talks with his Tajik counterpart, Emomali Rakhmonov, on the U.S.-led military campaign against neighboring Afghanistan, news agencies reported.
Rakhmonov greeted Sezer at the airport in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe.
The two leaders are due to examine the security situation in the three volatile, but strategic, central Asian states that border Afghanistan, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Sezer is also expected to meet with ousted Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who arrived in Dushanbe Tuesday, to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and the prospects of a future Afghan government, the Afghan embassy in Dushanbe said.
Rabbani was deposed by the Taliban in 1996 but is still recognized as Afghanistan's president by the United Nations.
Turkey, the only member of NATO with a majority Muslim population, said it was sending a special 90-man team to Afghanistan to help train Northern Alliance forces fighting the ruling Taliban.
The announcement made Turkey the only mainly Muslim nation to commit troops to the military campaign prompted by the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States.
A government statement said Washington had asked several of its allies to contribute forces "with the aim of surveillance, struggle against terrorists, guiding the Northern Alliance, supporting humanitarian missions, protecting innocent people and helping the evacuation of civilians when necessary," AFP reported.
It has also expressed a readiness to host a long-expected crucial meeting between a Rabbani delegation and associates of the Afghan ex-monarch, Mohammed Zahir Shah, in Ankara.
The 86-year-old Shah, who currently lives in exile in Rome, has been at the center of international efforts to form a broad-based post-Taliban government.
Tajikistan, a former Soviet Central Asian state, shares a volatile frontier with Afghanistan and is a key base for the anti-Taliban opposition.
On October 10, the Turkish parliament accepted a decree on sending troops to foreign countries and the stationing of foreign troops in Turkey within the scope of Operation "Enduring Freedom", a Turkish press website news reported.
"Turkey clearly stated that it would side with the U.S. without any reluctance after September 11 attacks," Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said.
Two smaller, pro-Islamic parties opposed the move and criticized the government for acting against Turkey's long-term interests, BBC's online service reported.
"It is dangerous for the government to acquire such permission because even it does not know where this operation is going," warned Abdullah Gul, from the moderate, pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party.
The main opposition True Path party accused the government of not being decisive enough, but voted in favor of the bill.
Earlier, Mohamed Sherif Himmat Zadah, deputy of the Islamic Nahda Party in Tajikistan, denounced the U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan as an act of terrorism - as civilians were killed.
The Nahda Party is considered the only Islamic Party in Central Asia that practices its activities freely - in accordance with the Tajik constitution, which was voted upon in the aftermath of a civil war from 1992-1997 between the Nahda Party and the communist government supported by Moscow.
Tajikistan's government has lately declared its readiness to open airports and military bases for the U.S.-led international coalition against Afghanistan, even though Dushanbe had refused to do so during the early stages of U.S. military maneuvers.
With additional reporting by Mutiallah Tayeb
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