Turkey’s conspicuous silence on Kashmir leaves Pakistanis shell-shocked and crying hoarse

Departing from his ritualistic practice, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan refrained from raking the so-called ‘Kashmir issue’ while delivering this year’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) address. Strikingly, in his bid to project himself as the leader of the Islamic world and modern day Caliph, Erdogan had repeatedly mentioned ‘Kashmir’ in his UNGA speeches. His anti-India rant in UNGA became a norm since 2019 when the Modi government abrogated Article 370 in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and it bifurcated the state, making J&K a Union Territory.

The hardline Islamic leader, Erdogan, had often advocated for resolving the Kashmir conflict through “dialogue and cooperation” between India and Pakistan. In 2023, he called for a “just and lasting peace” in Kashmir through cooperation between India and Pakistan. He had echoed similar sentiments during his UNGA speeches in 2022 and 2021. 

In earlier addresses, Erdogan had even referred to UN resolutions on Kashmir. However, he had been softening his tone ever since he made anti-India remarks during his 2019 UNGA speech. Back then, he had urged for settling the Kashmir dispute through justice and dialogue, rather than conflict.

Pertinently, Erdogan’s marked departure from his earlier anti-India stance serves as a major diplomatic jolt to Pakistan which has always considered Turkiye as its “all-weather” Islamic brother. Incidentally, his decision to give cold shoulder to the Pakistani propaganda – ‘the Kashmir issue’ between India and Pakistan – has not gone down well among the Pakistanis. 

While a section of Pakistani media and journalists have contented themselves claiming that the Kashmir issue was raked in the bilateral meeting between Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif and Turkish President Erdogan. However, as per the details of the transcript shared, while Pakistan PM Sharif had indeed mentioned Kashmir in his remarks, the Turkish side refrained from doing so, even in their bilateral interactions. 

Nonetheless, for Pakistanis, the conspicuous silence of their “all-weather” ally on Kashmir has dealt a major blow to their diplomatic tirade, especially at a time when they have failed miserably to rally the Islamic world against India on the issue of Kashmir. For years, despite its strenuous and rapid hate mongering against India, Pakistan could only muster the support of a handful of Islamic countries namely Malaysia and Turkey. Incidentally, their support too has been waning substantially in the past few years.   

Lamenting on Erdogan’s omission of Kashmir reference, Former Pakistan Minister Shireen Mazari wrote, “As I replied to u yesterday: Reflects a failure of our diplomacy – President Erdoğan mentioned Kashmir every time & was very strongly supportive of the Kashmiris since 2019 bec Pak civilian ldrship was on front foot globally on Kashmir at that time. Enough said for now!”

BRICS aspirant, Turkiye retracts from its earlier anti-India stance

The Pakistani experts have claimed that nothing has changed in Turkey’s stance on Kashmir while searching for reasons as to why Erdogan didn’t rake the Kashmir issue during this year’s UNGA speech. But geopolitical experts link it to Turkey’s bid to become a BRICS member. 

According to geopolitical experts, Turkey is hoping to become a member of the key world grouping like BRICS and other regional organisations like the Indian Ocean Rim Association and ASEAN. In this pursuit, it is retracting from its past anti-India stance as it doesn’t want to antagonise India, a founding member of the BRICS grouping and a major player in other regional groups. 

Consequently, to court India’s vote for its BRICS bid, Turkey hopes to ease diplomatic tensions with India, even going to the extent of upsetting its Islamic brother Pakistan, in the way.