After Palace meeting, Dostum declares victory

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is indeed facing domestic upheaval but his diplomats are by no means oblivious of safeguarding and promoting Turkish interests in Afghanistan.

On Sunday Basat Öztürk, Turkish Ambassador to Afghanistan, rushed to the Presidential Palace in Kabul to convey Ankara’s concerns about brewing political turmoil in Jozjan Province, north of Afghanistan, between Gen. Dostum and Governor Mohammad Alaam Sayee.  

Right to left: Karzai, Dostum Ozturk

President Hamid Karzai’s office put out a statement saying Karzai and Öztürk discussed “the activities of Turkish PRT [Provincial Reconstruction Team] in Jozjan Province”.

The next day, Karzai recalled his governor to Kabul.

A Karzai-appointed “facts-finding delegation” was on its ways to Jozjan on Sunday but it is unclear whether Governor Sayee has been fired before the facts are determined.

Dostum’s camp declared victory on Monday as Governor Sayee put out statements “the vice won over right” and “it’s a dark day”.

Before Karzai-Öztürk meeting, the Independent Directorate for Local Governance (IDLG) sided with Governor Sayee and warned Gen. Dostum, in a statement, that Kabul would not tolerate local “fiefdoms”. The IDLG statement came days after armed bodyguards of Gen. Dostum and Governor Sayee exchanged fire at the governor’s residence in Sherberghan city.

Dostum camp accuses Sayee of treason – to Junbish Party - and wants him out of this job – a job he got with Dostum support.

Mr. Sayee, however, says Dostum is propping up provincial/ethnic rebellion against Kabul and wanted him to defy the Karzai government.

This is not the first the burly Gen. Dostum barging into the houses of his ex-subordinates. On 2 February 2008, a drunk Dostum flanked by dozens of armed men burst into the house of Akbar Bai, a Turkmen leader, in Kabul city and reportedly ordered his men to rape Bai and his family members. In June 2011, Afghan authorities accused Dostum of intimidating Chinese oil workers in north Afghanistan.

While exact details of Karzai-Öztürk meeting are unknown, Dostum’s close ties with Ankara are hardly unknown.

Dostum’s family is mostly based in Turkey with his most favored son, Batur Dostum, completed his university studies in Pan-Turkism in Ankara University. Every time Dostum faces problems in Afghanistan, he flees to Turkey as he did in 1998 and 2008.

Ironically a President Karzai that fiercely opposes Taliban office logo in Qatar has allowed Gen. Dostum to run parts of Afghanistan with major Uzbek residents as his personal fiefs. For this sort of irony Afghans have a saying مربی داری مربا بخور   which literally means “thrive, when you have a supporter!”