December 25, 2015•Update: December 25, 2015
ISTANBUL
Anadolu Agency does not verify these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
Turkish newspapers on Friday covered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's meeting with his Afghan counterpart, Ashraf Ghani.
"The problems of Afghanistan are Turkey's problems," was MILLIYET's headline.
According to the daily, Erdogan – speaking during a joint press conference with his Afghan counterpart in the Turkish capital on Thursday – said the success of Afghanistan was also Turkey's success.
“We will support you until the end,” is the front-page headline in SABAH.
The daily cited Erdogan as saying: “Our armed forces have been in Afghanistan for security purposes from the beginning and now, as you know, we have a [training] mission there.
“We will continue obeying the chronological schedule decided by our Afghan brothers in accordance with the negotiations.”
The Turkish parliament authorized the government on Jan. 6 this year to continue posting Turkish troops to Afghanistan for two more years under a new NATO mission called Resolute Support which was launched on Jan. 1, 2015.
As the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force ended its 13-year combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014, the mission has evolved into training and advising of the nascent Afghan security forces.
YENISAFAK's headline read: "Turkey does not leave Afghanistan alone."
According to the daily, Erdogan announced that Turkey and Afghanistan had signed three critical agreements.
The two countries signed agreements on a memorandum of understanding on political solidarity, security cooperation plus a declaration of will for the construction of a ‘Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi Turkish-Afghan University’ campus in Kabul, the daily added.
Dailies also covered Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's remarks over Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) leader Selahattin Demirtas' recent trip to Moscow.
"Complete disgrace and a complete betrayal," wrote HABER TURK, quoting Davutoglu's remarks.
The daily reported that Davutoglu criticized Demirtas after the HDP leader’s comments that Turkey made a “mistake” downing a Russian warplane on Nov. 24.
Demirtas met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday.
Tension between Ankara and Moscow remains high following Turkish F16s’ downing of a Russian SU-24 aircraft which violated Turkish airspace near the Turkish-Syrian border last month.
After the incident, Russia imposed a range of unilateral sanctions against Ankara, including a ban on food imports.
AKSAM covered the story with the headline: "Disgrace and Betrayal"
According to the daily, Davutoglu said that when Russian aircraft in Syria were bombing innocents, going there to express support for Russia was a “disgrace and a betrayal to this nation”.
In other news, "Brake fails," was HURRIYET's headline on a story about an Iranian plane which crashed into a concrete barrier at Istanbul's main airport on Thursday.
The newspaper said the Mahan Air flight from Tehran hit concrete barriers as it taxied to its parking position at the terminal building at Istanbul's Ataturk airport.
CUMHURIYET ran with the headline: "The pilot's crash memory."
According to the daily, after the Airbus A310-300 hit the barrier, the plane’s front wheel was damaged and the pilot took a picture of the incident.
In economic news, Turkish financial paper DUNYA reported that recent cyber-attacks against Turkey's public institutions had also started to target Turkish banks.
According to the daily, the attacks had gone on for more than 10 days, targeting websites using the ‘.tr’ domain.
There is no clear evidence about who is behind the attacks but ‘Anonymous’, an international network of activist and ‘hacktivist’ entities, is the main suspect, the daily added.
