At the high-level 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the Kashmir Issue during his address to the world leaders in New York, United States of America.
His comments come weeks after he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi during which both leaders discussed strengthening trade and infrastructure relations.
Erdogan’s Comments on Kashmir Issue
“Another development that will pave the pace for regional peace, stability and prosperity in South Asia will be the establishment of a just and lasting peace in Kashmir through dialogue and cooperation between India and Pakistan,” Erdogan said on September 19, 2023. Continuing further he said, “As Turkey, we will continue to support the steps taken in this direction.”
Erdogan said that it is a matter of pride that India was playing a major, decisive role in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). He said that he favoured making five permanent and fifteen temporary members as the permanent members of the UNSC.
“Those twenty should be permanent members of the UNSC in rotation. But as you know, the world is bigger than the five referring to the five major powers and permanent members of the UNSC (USA, Russia, France, UK, China).
In recent years, the Turkish leader has referred to the issue of Kashmir in his address to world leaders at the high-level UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) session. The previous year, Erdogan raked up the Kashmir issue at the high-level UNGA here.
“India and Pakistan after establishing their sovereignty and independence 75 years ago, still have not established peace and solidarity with one another. This is very unfortunate. We hope and pray that a fair and permanent peace and prosperity will be established in Kashmir,” Erdogan said.
Erdogan’s Previous Remarks at UN
In 2022, only Erdogan and then Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan were the only two leaders to refer to the Kashmir Issue while the other 919 ignored it despite India’s lobbying, showing its location in the United Nations (UN).
In 2020, in a pre-recorded video statement to the General Debate, Erdogan made a reference to Jammu and Kashmir. India then had at that time termed it as completely unacceptable saying that Turkey should learn the respect the sovereignty of other nations and reflect on its own policies more deeply.
Erdogan on Taliban
Tayyip Erdogan also signalled to the Taliban Regime, which has barred women and girls from education in the name of Islam and that most work, would be accepted internationally if it gave up the restrictions.
“The transformation of the interim government (Afghanistan) into an inclusive administration in which all segments of the society are fairly represented will pave the way for Afghanistan to be positively received in the international arena,” he said.
Erdogan on China
Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized China for the treatment of the Uyghur Community which is mostly and primarily Muslims. “We will continue to express our sensitivity regarding the protection of the Uyghur Turks, with whom we have strong historical and humanitarian ties,” he said. Additionally, he commented on the UNSC by saying it has ceased to be the guarantor of world security and has become a battleground for the political strategies of only five countries.
