India hits back at Turkey

Defence Redefined

Published on 24/09/2021 at 09:15

India hits back at Turkey by condemning the Turkish occupation of Cyprus after Erdogan makes false claims on Kashmir at the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

Turkey’s President is swiftly cutting any bilateral ties with the civilized world by siding with Pakistan, a nation grey-listed by the UN for spreading terrorism. In his recent move, he addressed the United Nations General Assembly during its General Debate on Tuesday and did not hold back from provoking India by bringing up the Kashmir issue once again and using false baseless claims to support Pakistan-sponsored Extremism in Kashmir.

Last year, India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had said Erdoğan’s remarks about Kashmir reflected neither an understanding of history nor of the conduct of diplomacy and that there will be strong implications on New Delhi’s ties with Ankara.

Shortly after Erdoğan raised the Kashmir issue at the UNGA on Tuesday, India’s Foreign Minister, Dr. S Jaishankar, met his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides and held discussions on the economic relationship between India and Cyprus.

In a tweet, Jaishankar said, “it is important that relevant UN Security Council resolutions in respect of Cyprus are adhered to by all.” In 2019, following another rant by Erdoğan against India at the UNGA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades, TFI Post reported.

By holding top-level meetings with Cyprus and Armenia, countries which have been wronged by Turkey in the past, India had sent across a strong message to Turkey. Armenia shares a long history of strained relations with Turkey and Armenians still accuse Turkey of having committed genocide against not only the Armenian population in the early twentieth century but also the Greek and Assyrian. Ankara plays down the genocide.

Most recently, Turkish involvement in the war against Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region was out for the entire world to witness, as Ankara weaponized Azerbaijan with its TB2 armed drones. Ever since India’s ties with anti-Turkey powers of the Mediterranean have only grown from strength to strength. It must be noted that Turkey is an all-weather ally of Pakistan.

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The two countries had signed a Treaty of Eternal friendship way back in the 1950s. Both countries have Sunni-Muslim-majority communities and both countries look at the Islamic identity as central to national politics in an attempt to overcome the different ethnic groups in both countries, including the Turkified populations.

It is this long-shared sentiment that has spurred Ankara into making diplomatic attacks against New Delhi on the issue of Kashmir at the multilateral forum. India had always tried to keep friendly relations with every country including Turkey, but by repeatedly making Anti-India remarks and funding Anti-India radical elements, Erdogan is destroying Turkey-India ties.

Source: The Defenstar

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