Turkey is currently under the grips of its President Erdogan whose dictatorial regime takes the country into uncharted territory. Erdogan took a pro-Pakistan stance on Kashmir at the United Nations General Assembly which surprised many. India swiftly hit back at Turkey by engaging with Cyprus and Armenia much to Erdogan’s dismay. Instead of attempting to mend the relationship between the two countries, Erdogan’s Turkey hosted an international conference on Kashmir with the help of Pakistan – which is a clear attempt to meddle into India’s internal affairs.
‘Kashmir Turmoil: Emerging Threats to Peace and Role of International Community’ was co-hosted by Turkey’s Institute of Strategic Thinking and Pakistan’s Lahore Center for Peace Research and unsurprisingly, the speakers gathered at the so-called international conference agreed that Kashmir is not India’s internal matter. The event was full of Pakistanis peddling their country’s agenda on Kashmir as Pakistan Senator, Sherry Rehman claimed: “India is trying to redefine the global order […] It is doing it by use of power, not soft power.” Rehman said India’s unilateral actions in Kashmir is a “slap on the face of the international community and United Nations”. He further added: “India’s attempt is not to just contain the resistance [of Kashmiris] but also contain the [Kashmir] story… not to let the news filter out.” Shamshad Ahmad Khan, a former Pakistani diplomat, warned that if the Kashmir dispute remains unresolved “it will have disastrous consequences as it has become a virtual nuclear flashpoint”.Khan, who is also chairman of the Lahore Center for Peace Research, said: “India has tried to silence Kashmiris in past. It did not work and it will not work in future too.”
While the Pakistanis continue to shed crocodile tears on Kashmir and India’s alleged aggression, they would be better advised to look at the plight of Pakistan occupied Kashmir where right to life is a luxury that the residents of PoK cannot afford as the Pakistan Army is known to carry out atrocities in the region with the help of ISI backed terrorists.
Turkey whose war crimes in Syria include brutal raping and stoning to death of a female activist decided to wade in India’s internal matter as President of Turkey’s Court of Cassation Ismail Rustu Cirit termed Kashmir as a “bleeding wound” and according to Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) lawmaker Erkan Akcay, Kashmir has become the frontier of U.S.-China hegemony. “Israel sells weapons to India, while the U.S. backs India to counter China.”
It is only ironic that Turkey and Pakistan where democracy is just a smokescreen speaks about the rights and freedom of Kashmiris. This is a clear-cut attack on India’s sovereignty and India must pay Turkey back in the same coin.
If one reads the details of the conference, the speakers had a definitive anti-India and anti-Israel agenda as evident from the fact that Erkan Akcay said that world faces six key problems: Jerusalem, Cyprus, Kashmir, Crimea, Kashgar (Xinxiang) and he stressed that if these issues are resolved, the world will become a better place to live.
India’s strong bilateral relations with Israel is causing great heartburn in Islamists and India should only step-up its relationship with Israel.
India must hit back at Turkey’s jugular vein of Armenia and Cyprus and it must now host international conferences which highlight the Armenian genocide.
India had shown an inkling of hitting out at Turkey as in the aftermath of Erdogan’s Kashmir rant at the UNGA, PM Modi met the Armenia PM Nikol Pashinyan and Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades on the sidelines of the 74th UN General Assembly. Armenia shares a long history of strained relations with Turkey and Armenians still accuse Turkey of having committed an inhuman massacre of the Armenian population in the early twentieth century. Turkey is also accused of having played down the mass killings at that time. Cyprus, on the other hand, was violently partitioned by Turkey in 1974, after an invasion, which ultimately led to the Turkish occupation of a major part of Cyprus by the end of the invasion. More recently, Turkey has been trying to occupy parts of what is left of Cyprus and has been at odds with Greece for this reason. India needs to be aggressive and give it back to Turkey in light of its increasing meddling in India’s internal affairs.