What happens to the security around Kabul airport will offer a glimpse into Afghanistan’s future

Turkey is set to protect the airport once international troops pull out, writes Borzou Daragahi – but what will this mean for the country’s own security forces?

Some in Kabul are edgy about the impending departure of international troops (AFP/Getty)

International troops are set to depart Afghanistan this year, ending what will likely be remembered as one of the lengthiest – and most costly – military entanglements since the long wars of the Enlightenment.

But there is one security function in which international forces may continue to take the lead. Even after almost all other troops have left, Turkish forces serving under Nato’s Resolute Support Mission are planning to continue to safeguard Kabul’s Hamid Karzai international airport.

There is little doubt that Turkey can guard an airport. And it’s not inevitable that Ankara would get sucked into Afghanistan in a destructive way; in recent years it has managed to intervene militarily in Libya and Azerbaijan, and maintains a base in Somalia and a major presence in northern Syria – all without suffering too much blowback.