Sharif’s visit would be a reaffirmation of the deep-rooted fraternal ties between Pakistan and Turkey…reports Asian Lite News
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will attend the inauguration ceremony of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Saturday, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said.
The Prime Minister would convey warm felicitations on behalf of the government and people of Pakistan to the Turkish President on his recent re-election, the Ministry said on Thursday in a statement.
Sharif’s visit would be a reaffirmation of the deep-rooted fraternal ties between Pakistan and Turkey, the Ministry added as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.
The Pakistan-Turkey relationship is deeply embedded in commonalities of faith, culture and history, and strengthened by mutual trust and convergence of views on regional and global matters, it said.
Frequent leadership-level exchanges are a defining feature of the eternal bonds of friendship between the two countries, according to the statement.
Turkey has every reason to pursue good relations with India. Putting economy back on track will be Erdogan’s prime concern. For this he will need strong economic partnerships. India can offer one such partnership, writes Aditi Bhaduri
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is back in power in Turkey in widely-watched elections, which The Economist had billed as “The Most Important Election of 2023.” Many had expected him to lose to his rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who many had believed would win. Ultimately the Turks voted for Erdogan, who has been in power for two decades. While the Turkish economy is struggling – one of the reasons many believed would see a change of power in Turkey, it remains to be seen if there will be any changes in the country’s internal polity. Externally, however, Erdogan has been on a course correction for some years now, though this has not extended to India. Which is why, here is an opportunity for the Turkish President to mend fences with India.
India and Turkey have no inherent conflict or problems in their bilateral relations. Turkey’s courting of Pakistan from the time of its inception had created barriers for closer relations with India. Nevertheless, over the years, trade, commerce, tourism, people-to-people contacts have flourished, however, under Erdogan, ties have nose-dived but for no good reason.
Erdogan and his Justice and Peace Party (AKP) who have been dominating Turkish politics for more than two decades had taken Turkey on a path quite different from that envisaged by the country’s father figure Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. While promising to restore the glory of the Turks by reclaiming the glory of its Ottoman past, with himself as the new Caliph, Erdogan has put Turkey on a marked Islamist path, truly winning hearts and minds across the Muslim world, including in India. What is troubling is that in doing so Turkey began interfering in India’s domestic politics.
Erdogan has been consistently raking up the Kashmir issue – it was one of the three countries, together with China and Pakistan, to condemn India’s decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s (J&K) special status. Erdogan even raised the issue in the UN General Assembly. During his February 2020 visit to Pakistan, Erdoğan compared the struggle of Kashmiris with the Ottoman Empire’s fight during World War-I. Even as his regime clamps down on liberties, minorities, and the media inside Turkey, the State-controlled Turkish media has kept up a steady diatribe against India. Even more damaging, is that Turkey has allowed Kashmiri separatists and radicals to set up shop on its territory, while reaching out to Indian activists and wooing them to speak out against India. More recently, Turkey stayed away from the G20 meet in Srinagar, (though Turkish contractors are being allowed to build a railway tunnel there).
But here’s the thing: Erdogan’s concern for the ummah does not extend, for instance, to the Uyghur Muslims under duress in China. While relations with China have been burgeoning – Turkey is an enthusiastic participant in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and a priority country with the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) – it has not only turned a blind eye to China’s well-documented oppression of the community, but has gone a step further by taking measures to assuage China’s concerns. First, it has announced the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) to be a terrorist organization and, has even been deporting Uyghur Muslim dissidents back to China via third countries like Tajikistan.
Secondly, Turkish intervention in foreign wars, for instance, like in Libya and Syria, has only meant suffering for Muslim populaces of those countries.
It, therefore, stands to reason that Turkey’s Kashmir-obsession does not stem from a genuine concern of Muslims. We do not know if it is conducted at the behest of other powers, but to do so only for Pakistan is to be, mildly put, foolish.
On the other hand, Turkey has every reason to pursue good relations with India. The Turkish economy is in crisis. The Turkish lira has plummeted, inflation is at an all-time high, at 85.51 per cent in October 2022, and much of the devastation that the earthquake caused in the country earlier this year, is believed to have been a result of the poor policies of the incumbent government. Putting the Turkish economy back on track will be Erdogan’s prime concern. For this he will need strong economic partnerships. India can offer one such partnership.
Despite Turkish belligerence, India-Türkiye bilateral trade has grown over the past couple of years from US$8.7 billion in 2018 to over US$10.70 billion in 2021-22. Tourism is one of the mainstays of the Turkish economy and Indian tourists make up a chunk of the tourist footfall there. Turkey has in particular been a favourite with Bollywood, which apart from other things, generates local employment. The Indian market offers strong incentive to many Turkish products.
India is a major investment hub and was the fifth largest FDI recipient in the world in 2020, according to UNCTAD data, proving its economic and political resilience, offering stability to companies and investments. Its huge infrastructural needs are well poised to offer booming business to Turkish construction companies. All of this makes India a reliable economic partner.
On the other hand, Turkiye’s pal Pakistan is on the brink of a civil war and is imploding economically.
Even the Chinese economy is on the backfoot – hit first by Covid, then the war in Ukraine, and now the accumulation of international bad debts. More recently, Germany – Turkey’s most important trading partner, has announced recession.
Even though India has been at the receiving end, it has made overtures towards Turkey. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a one-to-one meeting with Erdogan in Samarkand last year on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, where Turkey is a dialogue member. After wheat supply chains were disrupted in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, India increased wheat imports to Turkey. When Turkey was hit by the devastating earthquake earlier this year, India immediately responded by rushing in plane loads of earthquake relief material, humanitarian aid, medical supplies, advanced drilling equipment, etc. Turkey’s ambassador Firat Sunel has thanked the Indian government. “Dost is a common word in Turkish and Hindi… We have a Turkish proverb: ‘Dost kara günde belli olur’ (A friend in need is a friend indeed). Thank you very much,” he posted on Twitter. Yet, soon after, Turkey once again raised Kashmir at the UN Human Rights Council.
Now, after Erdogan’s victory Modi has again reached out with congratulatory message, tweeting “Congratulations @RTErdogan on re-election as the President of Turkiye! I am confident that our bilateral ties and cooperation on global issues will continue to grow in the coming times”. Erdogan now has the opportunity to reciprocate accordingly, and smoothen the ruffles in bilateral ties, which otherwise have tremendous potential for the welfare of both nations.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Photo: Twitter@RTErdogan)
Erdogan says the new constitution will embrace the dreams of Turkish citizens.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that his country should make a new constitution to embrace the dreams of all its people, local media reported.
“Let’s make a new, civil, libertarian constitution that embraces the dreams of all the people of this country,” Erdogan, who was speaking in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Anadolu Agency reported on Friday.
He made the remarks at a houses groundbreaking ceremony in Turkey’s largest Kurdish-majority city which was still affected by the February 6 earthquakes, it reported.
“In this Turkey, no one can be despised or marginalised due to their origin, belief, language, or attire,” Erdogan added.
Diyarbakır'da 2 bin 720 konutun temelini atıyor, 1.432 konutu vatandaşlarımıza teslim ediyor, Selahaddin Eyyubi Camii ve Külliyesi'nin açılışını gerçekleştiriyoruz.https://t.co/B5BuCKruoi
Erdogan said Turkey plans to construct enough buildings in a year to meet the needs of earthquake victims, adding that 3,19,000 houses would be built in that period, Xinhua news agency reported.
On February 6, two powerful earthquakes struck 11 Turkish provinces, killing more than 50,000 people in the country. An estimated 14 million people, or 16 per cent of Turkey’s population, were affected by the disaster.
The Turkish air operation came after last Sunday’s terror attack that rocked Istanbul’s crowded Istiklal Avenue and killed at least six people and left 81 injured.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday indicated that he could go beyond air strikes and launch a ground operation in northern Iraq and northern Syria to eliminate the terror threat, according to Anadolu Agency.
While talking to the reporters after returning from Qatar to Turkey, Erdogan said, “This is not limited to just an air operation.”
“As we’ve said before, if someone disturbs our country and lands, we will make them pay the price. So, there are terrorist organizations in our south that are planning many attacks or that carry out such attacks and pose a threat (to Turkiye),” he added.
These remarks came after Turkey launched Operation Claw-Sword, a cross-border aerial campaign against the terror group Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)/YPP which has an illegal hideout across Iraq and Syrian borders, reported Anadolu Agency.
The Turkish air operation came after last Sunday’s terror attack that rocked Istanbul’s crowded Istiklal Avenue and killed at least six people and left 81 injured.
After the attack, Turkish police arrested the suspect who planted the bomb on Istanbul’s Istiklal street.
“We consider it to be a terrorist act as a result of an attacker, whom we consider to be a woman, detonating the bomb,” CNN quoted Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktayas saying on Sunday.
Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said that CCTV footage shows a woman sitting on a bench for more than 40 minutes and then getting up one or two minutes before the explosion, leaving a bag or plastic bag behind. He further informed that earlier, a woman, who was suspected of being involved in the attack, was kept in custody.
Bozdag, who made the comments in an interview with privately-owned A Haber news channel, said Turkish security forces believe the woman is the suspect, and officials are investigating her, according to CNN.
Members of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army launch a long-range grad rocket targeting Syrian regime sites. (Photo: Anas Alkharboutli/dpa/IANS)
The Turkish National Defense Ministry said the operation was carried out in line with the right of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter, as per the Anadolu Agency report.
Erdogan said nearly 70 aircraft, including armed drones, took part in the operation and added that a total of 89 terror targets, including shelters, bunkers, caves, tunnels, and ammunition depots were destroyed.
“At this point, 45 terrorist targets at a depth of approximately 140 km (87 mi) in northern Iraq, and 44 targets at a depth of about 20 km (12 miles) in Syria were hit,” he added.
Asked if Turkey talked about this operation with Russia and the US, Erdogan recalled the Sochi deal between Ankara and Moscow to remove the terrorists from north-eastern Syria bordering the country, reported Anadolu Agency.
“They had the responsibility to clear the terrorists from the area. Unfortunately, even though we reminded them many times over and over, they did not do this… We said that we would not remain silent against this and that we would take steps against the terrorists there if they could not do it,” Anadolu Agency quoted him saying. (ANI)
Besides Pakistani politicians, Erdogan is the only other leader to mention Kashmir in recent years in speeches at the 193-member Assembly…reports Asian Lite News
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar met Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu for a wide-ranging discussion on global affairs, hours after Ankara’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a neutral-sounding reference to Kashmir in his General Assembly address.
In a tweet after the meeting on Tuesday, Jaishankar said they held a “wide-ranging conversation that covered the Ukraine conflict, food security, G20 processes, global order, NAM (Non-aligned Movement) and Cyprus”.
Turkey is embroiled in the confrontation on the divided island of Cyprus between its ethnic compatriots who hold the breakaway northern part of it and the Greek Cypriots.
In his speech on Tuesday morning, Erdogan struck a neutral-sounding stance and said: “We hope and pray that fair and permanent peace and prosperity will be established in Kashmir.”
He avoided internationalising Kashmir by even invoking UN resolutions as he had last year or criticising India in strong terms in the years before that.
Pic credits Twitter
Besides Pakistani politicians, Erdogan is the only other leader to mention Kashmir in recent years in speeches at the 193-member Assembly.
Turkey has assumed a pivotal role in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, and with the UN it helped open up Kiev’s ports for foodgrain exports through the Black Sea.
Also on Tuesday, Jaishankar met Austria’s Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, whom he called “my dear friend” in a tweet that said that they “discussed expanding our cooperation in mobility and education”.
“Appreciate his insights on the Ukraine conflict and its consequences,” he added.
Schallenberg said in his tweet that they “had the opportunity for another excellent exchangea covering “bilateral relations, including in the area of migration”.
“Also discussed global consequences of Russiaa’s unprecedented aggression against Ukraine,” he added.
Jaishankar also met with Libya’s Foreign Minister Najla Elmangoush and tweeted” “Appreciated her perspectives on the evolving situation in Libya”.
Earlier on Tuesday, his second day of diplomacy on the sidelines of the General Assembly, Jaishankar held high-level meetings with Presidents Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana and Azali Assoumani of the Comoros.
Jaishankar tweeted that he and Akufo-Addo “discussed our ongoing cooperation in the UN Security Council, especially on counterterrorism. Appreciated the achievements of our development partnership”.
India has close developmental relations with Ghana and supports several projects there in infrastructure, education and technology.
Jaishankar tweeted that Assoumani appreciated “India’s outreach in combating Covid-19 and dengue”.
He added that they “discussed taking forward our development partnership and working together on maritime security”.
Jaishankar also met with Nicaragua’s Foreign Minister Denis Moncada and tweeted: “Interesting discussion on the global situation and its multilateral implications.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for reconciliation between the government and opposition in neighbouring Syria.
“The opposition and the regime in Syria need to reconcile,” Erdogan said in comments carried by state news agency Anadolu on Friday.
After more than 11 years of civil war, in which Turkey has backed rebels seeking Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s removal, regime forces now control around two-thirds of Syria, supported by Russia and Iran, reports dpa news agency.
Turkey’s goal in Syria “is not to defeat Assad” but to find a political solution, Erdogan said, adding that states “can never rule out political dialogue or diplomacy”.
He was speaking to reporters on a return flight from Ukraine’s Lviv where he met President Volodymyr Zelensky and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Observers suggest the Turkish leader may be weighing a resumption of dialogue with Assad.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevl�t �avusoglu last week confirmed he briefly met his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad in October in Belgrade, the first such high-level contact since 2011.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (Xinhua/SANA) (syq)
Turkey controls pockets of land in northern Syria following military operations against the Syrian Kurdish militia whom it considers terrorists.
Erdogan recently threatened to expand the offensive there.
He suggested “further steps with Syria” will also help ease the burden of “4 million” refugees from Syria in Turkey.
Turkish opposition parties have vowed to send Syrians back home if they win the elections next year, amid a high level of resentment towards refugees in Turkey.
However, it is unclear how and when any plans to relocate refugees might work.
Erdogan’s call came as at least 14 people, including five children, were killed and 38 others were injured in the shelling of a market in an area controlled by Turkish-backed rebels in northern Syria, a war monitor said.
Amid rapidly deteriorating macroeconomic situation in Turkey, the road ahead for the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to get tougher…writes Mahua Venkatesh
Turkey is slated to go to polls in June next year amid a crumbling economic fabric. In April, Turkeys inflation rate measured in terms of consumer price index just fell shy of 70 per cent to 69.97 per cent. Despite skyrocketing inflation, an adamant Erdogan is continuing with a low interest rate policy, citing the principles of Islamic banking.
“As a Muslim, I will continue doing what our religion tells us. This is the command,” Erdogan, responsible for the radical transformation of the country, said in a televised address to the nation in December.
He added that Turkey has abandoned the monetary policy based on high interest rates that caused several developing countries to remain stagnant. Erdogan hoped that a low interest rate regime would push manufacturing, but Turkey’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), a key assessment of business conditions in the manufacturing sector, fell to 49.2 in April from 49.4 in March, signaling a further contraction in factory activity. The April PMI reading was the lowest since May 2020. In fact, the PMI reading has been consistently falling since the beginning of the year.
Notwithstanding the surging inflation rate, Turkey’s Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati assured that the inflationary trend was not worrying that it would “not spread over the long term and be permanent.”
According to the Turkish central bank’s forecast the annual inflation rate will peak at around 70 per cent by June and then it will start to come down to about 43 per cent by the end of the year and touch single digits by end-2024.
“The central bank has lost its autonomy, central bank governors have been changed in quick succession..so we have to see if these projections have any real meaning,” an analyst told India Narrative.
The economic situation has worsened with the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Almost all of Turkey’s oil and gas requirements are imported. Trade deficit widened to $6.1 billion last month.
While the Turkish lira has somewhat stabilised after a host of measures undertaken by the Turkish central bank, it was the worst performing currency in the world in 2021. With an eye to supporting the lira, the country’s central bank has put in place new reserve requirement rules for banks to control loan growth and encourage conversion of foreign currencies to the lira.
“With the trade deficit widening and inflation surging, imbalances in Turkey’s economy are threatening to scupper the government’s economic programme,” online news portal Ahval said.
Erdogan’s Saudi visit
A desperate Erdogan is hoping that his recent visit to Saudi Arabia would usher in “a new era.” His visit to Saudi was the first since 2017.
News portal the New Arab said that the president’s popularity is waning with the decline in the economic macro indicators. “He desperately needs foreign investment in the country,” the news portal said.
Recep-Tayyip-Erdogan
Erdogan starts preparing for polls
Erdogan, who has been in power since 2002, is doing his best to ensure that he retains the presidency especially after the setback in the local elections in 2019. He suffered defeat in Istanbul as well as in Ankara.
Last month, he introduced major changes in the country’s electoral rules. Erdogan’s new rules have made it tougher for the smaller parties to win seats on their own though the threshold for any party to enter Parliament has been reduced. Under the new regulations, the president will also be exempt from rules that ban ministers from using state resources to organize their campaigns or attend rallies, Bloomberg said.
(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)
The list included 454 members of the Gulen Movement, whom the Turkish government accused of being behind the failed coup on July 15, 2016, reports Asian Lite News
Turkey has frozen the assets of 770 individuals and a US-based foundation over their alleged links to terrorist groups, according to a decision published in the country’s official gazette.
The list included 454 members of the Gulen Movement, whom the Turkish government accused of being behind the failed coup on July 15, 2016, reports Xinhua news agency.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
The assets of the US-based Niagara Foundation were also frozen.
Meanwhile, the decision targeted 108 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), 119 members of terrorist organisations such as the Islamic Stat, Al Nusra, Hezbollah and Al Qaeda, and 89 members of left-wing groups.
