As the May 1 deadline for the US troop withdrawal nears, and efforts to secure a peace deal are ramped up, former Afghan president Hamid Karzai said the country is asking the Taliban to embrace today’s Afghanistan, a progressive modern Republic with democratic institutions.

In an interview with TRT World, on Monday, Karzai said: “We (Afghans) are asking the Taliban to become [open to progress]; we have examples of Muslim countries that are doing extremely well, that are deeply Muslim, deeply believing, yet very progressive, quite in touch with the rest of the world, quite in competition positively with the rest of the world.”

“Turkey is one such example and perhaps the best example. Look at the mosques in Turkey, it’s full of people when the prayer time comes, and look at the modernity and the industrial and cultural and economic output that Turkey gives to itself and to the rest of the world. It is a great model for Afghanistan.”

“We also have other examples in the Muslim world but the best for us is Turkey. We have Indonesia, we have Malaysia, we have others therefore yes it is possible for a Muslim individual for a Muslim society to be deeply believing, practicing Muslim and yet progressive, enlightened and futuristically oriented.”

On the issue of the withdrawal of US and foreign troops by May 1, or an extension of their stay, Karzai said this must be carried out in a responsible manner so as to make sure it is done in coordination with major powers and countries in the region in order to ensure peace in Afghanistan.

Karzai said: “The US withdrawal or staying in Afghanistan beyond May 1 must be responsible in both cases; if they want to withdraw that withdrawal must be responsible in the sense that it must make sure that Afghanistan is peaceful and that it is done in a broader understanding with major powers and the countries in the region so all together make Afghanistan a place of cooperation rather than competition.”

“Second if they want to stay beyond May 1 that too has to be responsible. The United States cannot be staying in Afghanistan that is in conflict; No!”

“If the US wants to, wishes to stay in Afghanistan, it can only be staying in Afghanistan and be in cooperation with a peaceful Afghanistan, a stable Afghanistan, not in Afghanistan in which the US presence is there, bases are there, but we are dying in a conflict and our children are suffering,” he said. .

Karzai said he is appealing for a responsible exit on the part of the Americans.

“A responsible exit and if they wish to – a very responsible stay which means in a peaceful Afghanistan not like what they did in the past 20 years; No!”

On the Taliban’s inference that there will be consequences if the US extends its stay in Afghanistan, Karzai said: “The Taliban have said that but we would ask the Taliban to think; they must also think more responsibly towards Afghanistan and towards the safety and security and well-being of the Afghan people.

“Whenever that is done by us the Afghans, by the Americans or our friends in the international community, it must be towards an end of violence in Afghanistan and the return of peace to Afghanistan,” he said.

On the US-proposed peace deal, which includes an interim government and President Ashraf Ghani stepping aside, Karzai said “the best would be that the Taliban agree to power sharing with the current government; the easiest would be that that they share power, that they come and join the current government as Afghan citizens and make peace and accept President Ghani,” until his term of office ends, in accordance with the country’s Constitution.

He said any amendments to the Constitution could then be done in order for steps to be taken forward.

“If that is not possible, if the Taliban don’t want to do that under any circumstances for whatever reason in their mind, then for the Afghan people peace is the priority; so peace must be our top priority and then for peace we must do what is necessary for it.

“That can be an arrangement … or that can be a new arrangement. But whatever the arrangement is, the future of that arrangement, the foresight of that arrangement, has to be a country in which its citizens enjoy the rights of choosing their own government with their own free will, through the will of the Afghan people and expressed through the vote of the Afghan people is the foundation of a strong Afghanistan and I hope the Taliban and everyone else will recognize and agree to that,” he said.

Karzai also stated in his interview that the Taliban are Afghans and also belong to Afghanistan. “They’re Afghan people,” he said adding that a change has to be made by all sides.

“Yes the Taliban must change, yes the Taliban must accept the new realities in Afghanistan, they must accept that the Afghan people want progress, they must accept that Afghan people want a better life, they must accept without a question that the role of women in Afghan society is one in which there cannot be a compromise and that people need to be educated, in that we need to have good relations with the rest of the world and a good economy,,” he said.

However he added that there has to be some give-and-take on both sides and that all Afghan saids must be adaptable to change in order to secure peace.

On the issue of the upcoming US-proposed peace summit in Turkey, Karzai said he has “tremendous hopes. I’m sure Turkey will do all to make certain and certain that the Afghan talks in Turkey, the intra-Afghan talks in Turkey are successful in bringing peace to Afghanistan. That trust we have in Turkey.”

“Holding peace talks in Turkey is a great opportunity for a long term solution,” Karzai said.

In conclusion Karzai said he was confident in the current process and that peace would come to Afghanistan – especially as it was the “will of the Afghan people” to live in peace.