The Presidents of Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan met in Istanbul for a Trilateral Summit and organized a press conference after their meeting. Turkish President Abdullah Gul said that it was not the intention of Turkey to mediate between Pakistan and Afghanistan but they wanted to develop relations of brotherhood and friendship between the three countries. He stated that this conference was planned much before the international London conference and so it did not serve as a preparation for it.
Gul emphasized that it was not possible to surmount the difficulties in Afghanistan only with military solutions. He stated that it was important to “embrace and win the hearts of the Afghan people” as well as training the security forces. Gul believed that isolating those forces that were involved in terrorism was a good solution. He said that Turkey was ready to contribute in any way to fight against terrorism in Afghanistan.
Source: Yeni Safak (Turkey), January 25, 2010
