Foreign Ministry dismisses reports Taliban opened office in Turkey

ANKARA

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is seen speaking at a meeting in this file photo. AA photo

Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç has dismissed media reports suggesting that the Taliban had opened a representative office in Turkey.

“The media reports do not reflect the truth. No such office has opened in Turkey,” Bilgiç said in a written statement yesterday.

A Pakistani Daily suggested that the Taliban opened an office in Turkey as part of a peace and reconciliation process and said Aga Mutasimullah Can, deputy to Taliban leader Mullah Omar, had met with the Pakistani intelligence chief in Ankara before the office was opened.

“Prior to opening the political office, Pakistan’s top intelligence official held meetings with political advisor and number two of chief of Taliban Mullah Umar, Agha Mutasimullah Jan in Ankara, where reconciliation process and post-NATO/U.S. forces from Afghanistan also came under discussion,” English-language Pakistani daily Frontier Post reported intelligence sources as saying.

The report claimed the U.S. officials might have meetings with the Taliban leaders in the newly opened “political bureau of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” in Ankara in the coming days.

The Pakistani daily further claimed the intelligence officials, who claimed to have played a role in the opening of the Taliban office, accompanied Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last week in Turkey.

Turkey hosted the eighth Turkey-Afghanistan-Pakistan Trilateral Summit on Feb. 13 around the theme of “Sustainable Peace in the Heart of Asia,” while aiming to strengthen multidimensional cooperation among the three countries in such fields as politics, security and economic development.