India must extend direct support to Kurds against their fight with Turkey
It was Turkey which had raised the Kashmir issue in the United Nations General Assembly in September 2019. Erdogan the President of Turkey has started thinking that he is the new KHALIFA of the Muslim World.
Pakistani ISI is working in close cooperation with all the political factions in Turkish politics to capitalize on the Kashmir issue. Government-sponsored organisations like Turkiye Diyanet Foundation, GASAM, SETA etc are furthering the ISI agenda on Kashmir. ISI is also utilizing its connections with the opposition party — Islamist Saadet, by engaging Anadolu Youth Association (AGD), Asma Kopru, SDE, etc for the same. ISI is also weaponising education by subversion of Indian students to achieve long term goals.
Turkey and Pakistan have grouped together to take on India through their Kashmir campaign and Recep Tayyip Erdogan has backed Pakistan’s position on abrogation of Article 370 along with now ousted Mahathir if Malaysia.
Raising the Kashmir issue in collaboration with ISI benefit the desperation of Erdogan to become the undisputed ‘Caliph’ of the Muslim Ummah and even achieve its main aim of getting hold of the nuclear weapon technology. The Turkish support to Pakistan’s campaign against India on Kashmir and ‘Hindutva’ shall also elevate and enhance Erdogan’s position amongst the Pakistani Punjabi Muslims — the population on which he is banking to claim the leadership of the Islamic world.
Besides the issuing statements by the President, parliamentarians, and other leaders, the Turkish institutions have played a super active role in trying to create an anti-India narrative on Kashmir but without any success in the Arab World or in South East Asia. Amongst institutional entities, Turkish educational institutions have been leading the Turkish efforts to further anti-India agenda, which have become places of convergence of anti-India elements. More than 30 big and small conferences and seminars on Kashmir have been organised in Turkish Universities since August 5, 2019.
In fact, Pakistani Embassy and Pakistani Consulates themselves organised multiple events on Kashmir, including ‘Jammu and Kashmir under the pressure of far-right nationalism’ in Istanbul Aydin University as well as ‘The Question of Kashmir’ and ‘From 05 August 2019, till today: endless martial law’ in Istanbul University – to mark the completion of one year of abrogation of Article 370, besides others.
The Indian origin students are the targeted audience invited in these events and disgruntled students from the Kashmir valley and anti-India academicians are invited as speakers at these events.
The HoD of Urdu Department in Istanbul University Prof Halil Toker has also organised and spoken at several conferences on Kashmir in the Istanbul University. He is a known Pak proxy who happens to be the recipient of Sitara-e-Imtiyaz 2017 Award by the Pakistani Government.
The list of organisations that have organised anti-India events on Kashmir issue includes the South Asia Strategic Research Centre (GASAM), Turkey Youth Foundation’s Regional Expert’s Training Programme (TUGVA’s BUYP), YTB, and many others.
The fact that YTB and TUGVA work under the directions of President Erdogan’s son Bilal Erdogan connotes the direct role being played by the Erdogan government in anti-India activities.
Similarly, the presence of leaders like Yalci Topcu, Head Advisor to the Turkish President and MPs Metin Gundogdu and A Sahin in these events and them sharing the stage with the Pakistani Ambassador to Turkey highlight the Pak-Turkey nexus against India.
The Diyanet Foundation, under the Directorate of Religious Affairs and Presidency of Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB), selectively target the middle class Muslims in India by providing them scholarships and stipends.
The YTB has already expressed its desire to take more Indian students in Turkey and alleged that Indian agencies are obstructing the granting of scholarships to such students.
While studying in Turkey, most of them come in contact with the Indian Student’s Circle (ISC), which is controlled by the YTB and provides funding for organizing anti-India events. On passing out, the Turkish International Association of Graduates Uluslararasi Mezunlar Dernegi or TUMED maintains connections with students.
The admission-scholarship-university-alumni channel is maintained by Turkish Embassies, Consulates Turkey’s Maarif Foundation (TMV), Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), Yunus Emre Institute (YEE), Red Crescent, Turkish Airlines, and TDF. The long-list of educational hotspots for anti-India activities include Istanbul University, Istanbul Sbahattin Zaim University, Ibn Haldun University, Anakar Yildirim Beyazit University, Erzurum Diplomasi Akademisi, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakif University, many more.
The subversion activities of TDV/Diyanet and IHH in India are noteworthy. Besides the scholarship programme for higher education, the Diyanet is also running scholarship programme for Islamic theology and has provided scholarships to a number of Indian students from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Kerala to study in Turkey to become Imams.
The Diyanet is also working to promote Islamic extremism in India.
Similarly, the IHH is expanding its base in the Muslim dominated regions of India under the guise of welfare and humanitarian work. International experts have already warned India about the two organisations spreading their legs in India and radicalizing the Muslim populations to wage war against the Indian government.
Organisations under the direct control of Turkey Government — Union of NGOs of Islamic World (UNIW) and TUGVA have also made inroads amongst Muslim communities in India. UNIW is an alliance of 354 NGOs from 66 countries.
Numerous Indian Islamic outfits/NGOs have joined the alliance and are working in India on its behest.
Further, Bilal Erdogan’s TUGVA has made strong inroads within India by establishing connections with Islamic outfits in India, including Jamaat-e-Islamic Organisation’s student wing Student Islamic Organisation (SIO). There is an entire nexus of Turkey government, Pakistani ISI NGOs, and Indian students — all coming together in educational institutions to carry out their anti-India agenda.
Though India has succeeded in checking the direct interference of organisations like YTB, TUGVA, Diyanet, and IHH in India, still these organisations continue to carry out the Turkish propaganda and making the proxies to work for them, they have been somewhat successful in taking Indian students to Turkey and send them back brainwashed.
Therefore now India needs to become proactive. All Universities of Turkey should be derecognized forthwith by India and no Indian student should be permitted to go to Turkey.
Next we need to discourage our tourists to visit Turkey, this will hit their tourism industry hard and will really hurt.
Finally India must step up its support to the prosecuted Kurdish population fighting the Turkish tyranny. India as a member of the UN Security Council must raise this issue of Kurdish problem at all international forums.
All material support required by the Kurds should be given to them through various countries and agencies. Since Turkey wants to hit us on Kashmir then we need to reciprocate and hit harder.
India must also coordinate with Israel, USA, Russia, NATO Countries and others to ensure that Turkey is unable to obtain any nuclear technology from Pakistan or North Korea. Hopefully China should not be supplying any nuclear technology to Turkey.
