Explained: Why Turkey is with Pakistan on Kashmir Issue?

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who visited Pakistan, said that he did not like India. During his address to the Pakistani Parliament, Erdoğan had said that Kashmir is as important for Pakistan as it is for Turkey
Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News
Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who visited Pakistan, said that he did not like India. During his address to the Pakistani Parliament, Erdoğan had said that Kashmir is as important for Pakistan as it is for Turkey. The President of Turkey gathered applause between the parliament and the people by saying that he would continue to support Pakistan on Kashmir and other issues, but at the same time he got angry with India. India's Foreign Ministry has expressed displeasure over Erdoğan's remarks, saying that Turkey should not interfere in India's internal affairs.

When it comes to reacting to the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, many countries of the world make a balanced statement or avoid appearing in favor of someone directly. But Turkey, especially President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has openly supported Pakistan on Kashmir on several occasions. Although there are deep relations between Pakistan and Turkey for a long time, but still the question arises that why Turkey is not afraid of deteriorating relations with India, one of the world's biggest economic powers?

Before going to this question, it is important to know how historically India-Turkey relations have been?

Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News
Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News

Although India's relations with Turkey can be called normal, but in the case of Kashmir, there is some tension about the way it supports Pakistan. Aftab Kamal Pasha, a professor of Middle East affairs and a professor at  Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, says, "Looking at the history, Turkey had close ties with Neto and the Western Alliance from 1947 to 1986. During the Cold War, Pakistan also belonged to this faction. Was with India when it adopted non-alignment and had deep ties with the Soviet Union as well. "

"Then the Prime Ministers of the two countries came to know each other after 1986. When the Soviet Union disintegrated, there was a warmth in the relationship between the two countries. Since then, the Presidents, Prime Ministers, Foreign or Defense Ministers of the two countries, etc. The other kept coming in and the bilateral relationship got hot. "

"Meanwhile, Bulant Ezvit was Turkey's first PM who wanted a good rapport with India rather than Pakistan. He wanted to isolate Pakistan. But since Ardoआनan became the leader of the AK Party, his issue has led to the leadership of the Islamic world. They feel that Turkey should become a major military and economic power in order to attract Islamic countries through its model."

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Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News
Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News

Why talk openly on Kashmir?

Last year, Pakistan had raised a strong objection when Article 370 of the Constitution giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir was disregarded and divided into two union territories. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan tried to garner international support in this matter against India. In this case, there was a voice in favor of Pakistan from Malaysia as well as Turkey. After this, in September last year, Erdoğan had raised the issue of Jammu and Kashmir in the United Nations General Assembly and appealed to negotiate with India and Pakistan to resolve it.

Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News
Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News

Professor Aftab Kamal Pasha says, "Erdoğan has taken a new stance in foreign policy. He understands that the way he made a strong statement in the case of Palestine and Israel, he will also get attention by giving about Kashmir." "When Erdoğan came to India in 2017, he still offered arbitration, which was turned down by India. Then he mentioned Kashmir in UN and IOC as well." Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was on a visit to India from 30 April to  1 May 2017. During that time the two countries had agreed to increase investment and bilateral cooperation. Apart from this, it was agreed to increase cooperation in the fields of medicine, space, technology and nuclear power.

Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News
Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News

What does turkey want

Turkey say, Erdoğan's aggression on India has increased in recent years. Professor Aftab Kamal Pasha points to another reason behind this. He says, "Turkey's relations have deepened with Russia and it has cleverly restored military, economic, diplomatic and political relations with the European Union and the United States. But Turkey's ambition is – to become a nuclear power. The last 10 Over the years, he tried hard to get technical and scientific support from India in this area. Erdoğan is angry if there is no positive response from India. "

Professor Pasha believes that Turkey wants to maintain a good rapport with Pakistan so that it can cooperate on nuclear technology and emerge as a nuclear power. He also considers talking about Kashmir a part of this strategy. Professor Pasha says, "Turkey has invested a lot of money to become a nuclear power. He also tried to get support from Russia and Iran but it did not benefit much. So now he wants this from Pakistan." Turkey has reserves of thorium which can be used in nuclear technology. Turkey is of the opinion that due to geopolitical reasons, its nuclear power is necessary because it is located in a sensitive place.

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Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News
Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News

How can India answer

The diplomatic relations of any two countries also depend on the trade relations between them. Therefore, it is important to see how much business is done between India and Turkey. Along with Turkey, Malaysia also supported Pakistan on the Kashmir issue. After this, India, which took a large amount of palm oil from Malaysia, has reduced its imports. It is having a direct impact on Malaysia. The situation became such that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who went to Malaysia to visit, had to say that he will compensate for the losses caused by India's stance.

So, by taking similar economic steps, does India have the capacity to trouble Turkey?

There are many forums to increase mutual cooperation between the two countries. These include Joint Economic Commission, Business Council, Joint Economic Commission, Business Council and Joint Committees for Agriculture and Tourism.

Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News
Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News

According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry website, there has been an increase in the number of tourists coming from India. Among them, more people organize their wedding ceremony in Turkey. Turkish contractors are working on a project worth $ 430 million in India. Turkish companies have the work of building subways in Lucknow and Mumbai, tunneling of the Jammu and Kashmir railway and many housing projects. Apart from this, there are also plans to get help from Turkish company to build ships for the Indian Navy.

Professor Aftab Kamal Pasha of JNU professor of Middle East affairs says, "Turkey has become an important economic power like India. It is also an industrial and military power. The things it imports from India, it would have benefited from it. But the dependency is not high. India can only warn, which it has given. Because the things that Turkey takes from it, they can be imported from other places also." Turkey exports gold, marble, raw metal i.e raw metal and oil seeds to India while petroleum, textile making threads are imported from India.

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Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News
Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News

Diplomatic route

In 2018, there was a turnover of eight billion dollars between India and Turkey, out of which seven and a half billion dollars was export from India. India's exports to Turkey are undoubtedly high, but still it is not in such a situation as it is about Malaysia. In such a way, if India wants to pressure Turkey in any way, then it will have to adopt more avenues.

But which ways are they?

Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News
Source: Google/ Image Credit: BBC News

In response to this question, Professor Aftab Kamal Pasha says, "India can take up the issues of Armenia, Greece and Cyprus on which Turkey remains on the backfoot. For the last 25 years, India and other forums have softened their attitude on these matters. Is adopted. But since the Ardoan hawk is not coming, it may be considered to raise these issues again in the Ministry of External Affairs. "

"After the coup in Turkey, there are also allegations of massive human rights violations. There are also reports of repression of Kurds in the southeast. India can raise these issues as well." How effective this approach will be, it cannot be said. Because India had been doing all this even before 1985, but there was no special effect on Turkey.

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