Turkish President Erdoğan pays historic visit to Afghanistan --- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has arrived in Afghanistan, as the latest world leader to visit the war-ravaged country since President Ashraf Ghani took power after a prolonged political standoff. -- Erdoğan met Ghani, his first vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum, and his former poll rival Abdullah Abdullah, who took the new role of "chief executive," on Oct. 18. -- Ghani welcomed Erdoğan in the presidential palace with a military ceremony. During the press conference after the talks, two leaders stressed the importance of bilateral relations between their countries and vowed go further cement historic bonds. -- Ghani was sworn in as the new Afghan president in late September after a fraud-tainted election that had plunged Afghanistan into months of political deadlock and threatened to take it on the brink of civil war. -- "The Afghan people voted to form an administration for the first time. The people's free will is manifested," President Erdoğan said, praising Ghani's contribution to the Afghan democracy. -- During his one-day tour Erdoğan also visited Turkish troops based in Afghanistan. -- During his one-day tour Erdoğan also visited Turkish troops based in Afghanistan. -- Turkey has refused to take on any combat missions in Afghanistan, fearing a Muslim backlash, with its troops primarily involved in providing security, reconstruction and training. -- Turkey has been cited as a potential mediator for negotiations between Kabul and the Taliban insurgents. -- British Prime minister David Cameron visited Afghanistan early this month to hold talks with Ghani as NATO-led international troops end their long war against the Taliban. -- About 40,000 NATO troops are serving in Afghanistan, but their combat mission is scheduled to finish at the end of this year. -- NATO’s follow-up mission, which will take over on January 1, will be made up of 9,800 US troops and about 3,000 soldiers from Germany, Italy and other member nations, among them Turkey. -- The new mission -- named "Resolute Support" -- will focus on supporting Afghan forces as they take on the militants, in parallel with US counter-terrorism operations. -- İbrahim Kalın, Erdoğan's deputy chief of staff, told Al Jazeera that this is the first official visit to Afghanistan by a Turkish president. -- Kalın also said that Turkey will contribute to the Resolute Support by sending 700 Turkish soldiers. -- The Turkey-Afghanistan-Pakistan trio will possibly meet in 2015 again, Kalın added. "Our President will bring the offer to the table [in Afghanistan]." -- Erdoğan chose Afghanistan as the sixth country to visit as Turkey's President. - Read More, http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-president-erdogan-pays-historic-visit-to-afghanistan.aspx?pageID=238&nID=73155&NewsCatID=510