No sunglasses for Turkish soldiers in Afghanistan

Egeman Bagis, Istanbul MP from the Justice and Development (AKP) Party, has made an interesting explanation as to why Turkish soldiers in Afghanistan, unlike their US counterparts, do not wear sunglasses. Bagis, who recently returned from a trip accompanying Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Afghanistan, said he learned on the trip that the large sunglasses worn by US soldiers guarding Afghan President Hamid Karzai came across as extremely unfriendly to the Afghan people.Said Bagis: "Our NATO representative in Afghanistan, Hikmet Cetin, has explained to the Turkish soldiers that for Afghans, eye contact is extremely important in conveying a sense of trust, and for this reason, has asked that Turkish soldiers not wear sunglasses." Bagis went on to say that the US has an image problem that it needs to tackle in both Europe and in Turkey, and that in doing so, it might have more success in explaining itself to the world. Â