Though
he calls himself a "conservative democrat", any form of democracy is
not acceptable to Erdogan unless it comes under the purview of his Islamist
goals and principles. He certainly aims to make a post secular, post Ataturk Turkey,
and has been steadily eroding the secular ideals on which Kemal Pasha had
founded the republic after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1922. He might
have come here with the much touted “fresh fillip” to India-Turkey relations,
but India has no friend in either Turkey or least of all, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkey’s
pro Pakistan stance is well known. There is a feeling of “brotherhood” between
the people of both the nations, whether it be Pakistanis in large numbers going
there for studying or tourism or be it the people to people contact between the
two countries.
Pakistan
of course sees itself as the guardian of Islam, and given its worship of the
various Turkic invaders who used Punjab as a gateway to their barbaric invasion
of India for eight centuries, its but natural that Pakistanis should worship
Turks like they worship Saudis. A very chilling instance of this was seen
during the Nov 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, where in Trident, Turkish
nationals were carefully separated by the terrorists while selecting the guests
for brutal torture before killing them.
Erdogan’s
relations with Nawaz Sharif’s family on a personal level are well known. But is
it logical that these relations extend to the Sharif family alone and not to
the military mullah nexus? Given these factor and ideological similarity
between the two countries and the people-to-people connect, India’s
leverage over Turkey is as good as non existent in comparison to
Pakistan’s.
Turkey’s
relationship with India can never be independent of its ties to Pakistan - and
therefore expecting Turkey not to side with Pakistan on disputed and vital
issues between India and Pakistan would be sheer stupidity. To give some
examples, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusolglu had said his
government fully supports Pakistan’s position on Jammu and Kashmir, and had
supported Islamabad’s demand to send an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
(OIC) delegation to the Kashmir Valley to investigate the alleged “human
rights” violations by Indian army. In addition to Kashmir issue, India’s bid
for membership of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is another issue where Turkey
fully supports Pakistan. Erdogan may have, during his India visit backed
India’s stance to be a permanent membership in UNSC and NSG, but just last year
, Turkey opposed India’s bid to NSG membership because Pakistan’s application
was not considered. Hence it is safe to say that Turkish support is guaranteed
only if Pakistan is hyphenated with India for the same honour.
India
certainly shouldn’t have the ignominy to tolerate lectures on human rights by a
country who has repeatedly denied the Armenian genocide of 1915-17 (1.5
Armenians were butchered by Ottoman empire) or whose sympathy for Daesh and
repeated human rights abuse on Kurds is not a secret. Erdogan is certainly the
last person we need to invite for proving our secular and democratic
credentials .As Firstpost had
put it "It is staggering to think that Erdoğan — who wields power as a
repressive, paranoid autocrat and has cemented his position through a dubious
referendum — has the temerity to lecture a democratic India on 'human
rights'." His preposterous claim that under his leadership Turkey’s
democracy has strengthened over the years , has to be called for what it is :-
a blatant lie. Because democracy there is in tatters, especially after he won
the recently concluded constitutional referendum (changing Turkey’s ruling
structure from parliamentary to presidential) in dubious circumstances - the
country is virtually a one-man rule.
As per Daily O “In the
aftermath of the attempted coup of July 15, 2016, at least 1,34,194 officials,
teachers, bureaucrats and academics have been sacked from state institutions;
1,00,155 people have been detained; 2,099 educational institutions have been
shut down; 7,317 academics have lost their jobs; and 4,317 judges and
prosecutors have been dismissed. A number of Indian students who were studying
in some of the 15 universities that have been shut down in the wake of the coup
attempt had to return home without completing their education. Some Indian
academics who were employed at these universities became jobless and their bank
accounts were blocked by the Turkish authorities for months.”
Erdogan urged Indians
not to view Turkey from the viewpoint of the western media. "Please,
please, please do not follow the western media when you look at Turkey. This is
a propaganda against Turkey by the western media and terrorist
organisations," he said. But he had no qualms over attacking Bashar al
Assad and encouraging Indians to view him and Syria from the viewpoint of
western media. But then, Turkey is the newest entrant to the Sunni White house
nexus.
Just
before he landed in India, during an interview
with the WION news channel, he proposed a “multilateral” discussion to
resolve the Kashmir issue, saying that it is the only solution to stop
casualties in Kashmir and to “prevent future generations from suffering”. One
of the parties would of course, be Turkey.
Quite
ironic from the President whose
nation’s history and present is full of territorial/border disputes and
conflicts.
· Kurds, who comprise 20%
of Turkey’s population, but even today, Turkey’s parliament prohibits speaking
in Kurdish. Kurds have effectively been a people without a state, being
significant populations in Iraq, Turkey, Syria . Saddam Husseins murders of
Kurds with chemical weapon is well known, but Turkey’s repression of Kurds has
been equally brutal. The conflicts of Kurdish
groups like the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and the People’s Democratic Party
(HDP) with Turkish authorities are many decades old. PKK has been labelled a
‘terrorist organization’ by Turkey. Since
the 2016 coup attempt, the hostilities between Turkish forces and PKK have
again reached worrying levels.
· In case of relations
between Cyprus and Turkey, the latter refuses to recognize the former. One
third of Cyprus is in Turkish hands virtually since 1974 as a result of a coup,
and the issue still stands. Cyprus
is still trying to reintegrate the northern part into the rest of the country.
· In case of Greece,
Turkey almost went to war with it in
1996 over Kardak islets , situated between Kalymnos (Greek island) and Turkey’s
Bodrum Peninsula. Greece considers these islets to be part of its territory,
while Turkey claims that it is “grey area” and hence cannot be in Greek
territory.
·
Armenia,
with whom it has closed its borders since 1993. As mentioned earlier, Turkey to
this day denies the Armenian genocides of 1915-17 where more than 1.5 Armenians
were murdered by Ottoman empire.
In
case of Erdogan’s Kashmir demand, India was prompt enough to dismiss such a
request. All I wish was that India had retorted with the “self determination”
of Kurds, just to give him a taste of his own medicine. Or gave him some
lessons on the background of the legal accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India,
and that the UN Resolution on Kashmir had the categorical requirement for Pakistani
security forces to vacate Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
But
all we got was the same boring cliché from PM Modi about how Sufism is a
common ground between Indian and Turkish cultures, and Rumi’s notion of
tolerance and pluralism celebrating the spiritual synergy between the two
countries (whatever that means).
Turkey,
while showering “warmth” on India in matters like support to India’s
entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), reforms in the United Nations
Security Council (UNSC), resolution of the Kashmir issue bilaterally between
India and Pakistan, wants Indians to teach and feed Syrian refugees in the
country, academic tie-ups with Indian universities and increasing Turkish
scholarships to Indian students studying in various Turkish universities. This
agenda was explained by a group of academics, journalists and advisors close to
President Erdogan to The Guardian, a day before he left for India “Turkey is hosting
around 3.5 million refugees who have fled conflict in neighbouring Syria. During
President Erdogan’s visit, we will also ask India to support in teaching and
feeding these refugees. And for that we will have to run joint academic and
food programmes. We hope India will agree to that.” Certainly, why shouldn’t
India agree? After all, as Sita Ram Goel said, Pakistan and Bangladesh are
fixed deposits but India is joint account, to be looted at will with secular
blessings. With Bangladeshis carving out the north eastern Indian states, 3.5
million Syrian refugees will be such a welcome addition.
Erdogan
was given an honorary doctorate at Jamia Millia Islamia, and he thanked them
saying that he was delighted to receive the Doctors of Letters from a
university which has played a pivotal role not only in India’s freedom movement
but also in the Khilafat movement. He noted “Terrorism can only be fought by tackling
poverty and inequality. It will be unfair to blame religion for terrorism”. He
attacked the Islamic state , calling it a "blasphemy" in the
name of Islam and that it no connection with the religion.
.
To
sum it up, Erdogan, whose supporters see him as
modern day amir-ul-mu’minin , who believes in the theory of khilafat or
Islamic caliphate criticizes Al Qaeda and ISIS, who believe in the same ideals
! He said “we shouldn’t become tyrants by becoming
indifferent to the sufferings of others” while the Turkish airforce carries out
strikes against the Kurds! He accuses Bashar Assad of human rights abuses but
has no issues about using chemical weapons against Kurds just like his friend
Pakistan has no problem using them against the Baloch.
It
is no secret that US NATO have fueled the civil war in Syria by routing
thousands of trained jihadis through Turkey. Islamic State militants were
trained and armed in Turkey. Turkey reaped rich rewards for export of some $3
million worth of oil of the IS on a daily basis. This was put to an end when
Russia bombed hundreds of tankers travelling between Turkey and IS-held
territory. General Michael Flynn, NSA adviser to Trump administration for a
short period had gone public in 2014 saying that the appearance of
Islamic State and Jabhat al Nusra was "willful decision" of the US.
India has got little to gain from
such a dubious regime which is buddies with its hostile neighbor (whom India
still continue to give the most favoured nation status, sadly). While it is
true that trade should never be hampered, India can scarcely afford to have a
newly islamised Turkey playing spoilsport in its neighbourhood when it is still
counting the damage done to it by Wahhabism import from Saudi Arabia.
