Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s comments on Indian-held Kashmir during his visit to Islamabad on Friday wherein he compared the struggle of Kashmiri people with that of the fight by Turkish people against foreign domination during the World War I, have rattled India.
Spokesperson of Indian Ministry of External Affairs Raveesh Kumar said on Saturday that India rejects all references made by the Turkish president on Kashmir, claiming that the region is ‘an integral and inalienable part of India’. “India rejects all references to Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral and inalienable part of India,” he said. “We call upon the Turkish leadership not to interfere in India’s internal affairs and develop a proper understanding of the facts, including the grave threat posed by terrorism emanating from Pakistan to India and the region,” he added.
Erdogan, while addressing a joint session of Parliament in Islamabad on Friday, had said that Kashmir meant to Turkey exactly what it had meant to Pakistan over the years. “Our Kashmiri brothers have been living under difficult circumstances over the years. The recent unilateral steps have further added to their woes and the situation was becoming alarming,” Erdogan had said, and noted that depriving the Kashmiris of their freedom and usurping their rights was not in anybody’s interest. The Turkish president had further said that the resolution of the lingering Kashmir dispute lied not in oppressive tactics, but warranted justice. “We feel for the Kashmiris the same way like the Muslims of this region felt for us during Khilafat Movement,” he had said. “Our Kashmiri brothers and sisters have suffered for decades and the transgressions have become graver. We once again demonstrated our country’s sensitivity in this matter by defending Kashmir at the 74th United Nations General Assembly,” he had said. “Events that happened a hundred years ago in Çanakkale in Turkey are being repeated in Indian occupied Kashmir and Turkey will continue to raise its voice against the oppression.”
Pakistan’s efforts to raise awareness about the plight of the people of the occupied valley have become more pronounced since August 5, 2019, when India repealed Article 370 of its constitution, stripping the region of its special status.
India also divided up occupied Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories; one Jammu and Kashmir, and the other the Buddhist-dominated high altitude region of Ladakh. The bifurcation of the territory came into effect on October 31 last year.
Since India’s measures of revoking Kashmir’s special status came into place, the issue has been raised thrice in the United Nations Security Council and also in the European Union Parliament.
Apart from Turkey, Malaysia has also been a vocal critic of New Delhi over its decision to revoke the special status of Kashmir.