The visit of the Taliban delegation to Ankara .. What is behind the campaign to distort the new rulers of Afghanistan?

After the Taliban movement took full control of Afghanistan, the first official contacts between the new government and Turkey began with the visit of a high-ranking Afghan delegation to Ankara, led by the acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaki.

This visit, as was expected, was met with great interest from the international and Turkish media.

In fact, much of this interest is due to the stereotyped image of the Taliban, as radical and different from the mainstream.

In the photos taken at Ankara airport, the focus was on the Taliban delegation wearing slippers instead of shoes, and the movement's practices are seen as not in line with international standards in terms of appearance, fighting methods and governance.

In a world that does not accept differences in the application of protocols, dress and usual patterns of behavior in the management of modern countries, no one is trying to understand Afghanistan seriously.

All parties must take into consideration the fact that the Taliban government is the first government to be able to take full control of the country in the last 40 years;

No Afghan, Soviet or American administration has been able to reach this level of control over the past years.

The West usually harnesses various scientific disciplines, such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, and ethnology, in order to know the enemies it faces;

The task is to monitor and collect all that information and then re-filter it and formulate it for the world from a Western perspective.

Although this process of collecting and formulating information does not go beyond mere observation of reality, it provides a minimum level of knowledge and understanding.

There are some social studies on the Taliban, which were previously published in the West, but they are not widely used in the media to understand the nature of the movement, and it is rare to find traces of these studies in the Turkish media in particular.

There has been no positive news about the Taliban since its takeover of Afghanistan, and most reports about the movement are based on prejudices.

The suffering of women under the rule of the Taliban, and the movement's interference in people's clothes, is still the most prominent headlines of most news agencies.

There is no doubt that this type of reports serves major goals, specifically the establishment of the idea that the Taliban model represents the final form of Islamic rule, and that this model may extend to Turkey and other countries, and similar things may happen to what Afghanistan is witnessing if political Islam came to power in these countries. Islamophobia is what is being produced and pumped into this news, and it can be said that the visit of the Afghan delegation to Turkey came under the weight of this media pressure. For this reason, the media focused on the fact that the Turkish side advised the Afghan delegation not to force women to wear the veil.

In fact, a Muslim is keen to advise his Muslim brother of everything that benefits him, and the presence of the Afghan delegation in Turkey is different from its presence in any other country.

It is the right and duty of all Muslims to give advice to their brothers, especially since any decision taken by the Taliban will not only affect Afghans, but all Muslims around the world as well.

However, the way the media handled this advice indicates the extent of the pressure being exerted on Turkey.

By the way, Turkey has the right to have contacts at the highest levels with Afghanistan, given the historical and cultural relationship between the two countries.

The focus on demonizing the Taliban aims to prevent Turkey from establishing these contacts in a proactive manner, and serves only the goals of those who wish to deprive Turkey of the advantages it enjoys on the ground because of its history, positions, and identity.

All parties must take into account the fact that the Taliban government is the first government to be able to take full control of the country in the last 40 years; No Afghan, Soviet or American administration has been able to reach this level of control over the past years. Whether you like the Taliban or not, you have to accept that they are the dominant force in the country at the moment. If you do not accept this fact, you will not be able to participate in any political arrangements regarding the future of Afghanistan. Accepting the Taliban as a reality on the ground does not necessarily mean adopting their understanding of religion, their style of governance, or their approach to addressing many issues.

Certainly, the Taliban's interpretation of Sharia and its practices is somewhat radical, but it is also necessary to realize that this interpretation is to some extent linked to the country's culture and the nature of Afghan society, and it is a spatially limited interpretation that cannot be exported abroad.

The focus on the danger that this cultural specificity poses to the whole world can only be explained by fear-making, and it is no longer a secret that we know which side is spreading this fear.

Of course, the cost of waging a 20-year war of independence against the United States has shaped a different reality.

We are facing a new situation now, and even the United States - which fought the movement and was forced to withdraw recently - is on its way to normalizing its relations with the Taliban.

There are those who said recently - after the Afghan delegation visited - that the time has come for Turkey to establish contacts with the Assad regime, after it met with those described as terrorists.

But although Turkey worked in Afghanistan under the umbrella of NATO, it never treated the Taliban as a "terrorist movement", and it is unfair to compare the Taliban to Assad, as the Taliban did not kill its own people.

Turkey is boycotting the Assad regime not because it is on the terrorism list, or because we have a different point of view with it, or because its interpretation of the Islamic religion is completely different from Turkey’s;

Every move Assad takes internally leads to thousands of deaths, massacres, human rights violations and crimes against humanity, and he never stops.

The Taliban did not fight against Turkey, did not use disproportionate force against its own people and did not commit any massacres against Afghans.

It is also clear that the United States is not accurate in defining terrorism;

It has put Hamas on the terrorist list, and this matter is categorically rejected by Turkey.

The United States also supports the Democratic Union Party - which Turkey considers a terrorist movement - by providing it with weapons.

However, the United States does not refuse to meet the Taliban at the present time, even though it fought them and was defeated by them.

Fleeing Assad's persecution in Syria, they seek refuge in Turkey and join the opposition.

Afghan immigrants also come to Turkey, but unlike the Syrians, they do not bring with them a message about the legitimacy of government in Afghanistan, because they left the country for economic, not political, reasons.

Afghan immigrants may convey a message about the economic situation that it is time for Turkey to contribute to the reform of the Afghan economy, and to help the countries of the Muslim world in general.