 "Turkish overtures in South Asia are poised to increase India's troubles")
Recent developments suggest Turkey is spreading its strategic and pan-Islamic tentacles in South Asia, as it did in Central Asia and South Caucasus. Turkey’s decades-long ideological and defence bonhomie with Pakistan is well known. However, in the last few months, its overtures in Bangladesh poised to foment trouble in the Indian subcontinent.
In the second week of January this year, a Turkish delegation led by the country’s Trade Minister, Omer Bolat, met Bangladesh’s Chief Advisor, Muhammad Yunus, and discussed various issues of importance for both countries, such as defence, trade and technology sharing.
What sounded important and sensitive was a statement made by Omer Bolat, who stated, “Turkey can replace India and other markets in Bangladesh’s imports…” It is important to highlight here Ankara’s sinister designs to increase its bilateral trade with Dhaka from $1.3 billion to over $4 billion in the next few years, aiming to replace India as Bangladesh’s top trade partner.
Earlier, Muhammad Yunus had a telephonic conversation with his long-time friend and Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a few days after taking over as the Adviser of Bangladesh’s interim government. Yunus’ participation in the 11th Summit of the Developing-8, an economic grouping of eight countries established in 1997 in Istanbul, as Turkey’s brainchild, seemed important because of Dhaka’s bid to veer away from India. This exposed Yunus’s real intent as he met the leaders of Turkey, and Pakistan on the sidelines, who had always harboured anti-India feelings.
However, the real worry for India is Bangladesh’s favourable tilt towards Turkey for robust defence ties, which stems from the deployment of Turkish-made Bayraktar drones last week along the India-Bangladesh border. Further, Bangladesh’s plan to buy 26 Turkish-made TULPAR lightweight tanks adds more injuries to India’s agony. During a meeting with the visiting Turkish Minister Bolat last week, Muhammad Yunus welcomed Turkey with open arms. His statement, “You are the leader of the technology; you can build the defence industry here…” shows his new found love for Turkey.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsTurkey, too, uses Pakistan to get strategic leverage in troubled Bangladesh at a juncture when anti-India sentiments are growing strong in our neighbourhood in the post-Hasina period. For example, the participation of Pakistan Navy’s PNS Yamama in the Mavi Vatan-2025, a Turkey-sponsored naval exercise, symbolises Turkey-Pakistan’s robust defence partnership. Furthermore, Ankara has pepped up Islamabad’s plan to have a bigger and more powerful navy by the next decade, with advanced MILGEM-class corvettes from Turkey and others in its maritime war kit. Turkey has shown immense interest in exporting its fifth-generation KAAN jets and helicopters to Pakistan to reinforce defence ties, which would prove to be disastrous for India.
It is essential to note here that Turkey has long been a known India baiter and sponsor of anti-India activities. Since Turkey and Pakistan signed the Treaty of Eternal Friendship in the 1950s, they have become closest friends, but remained India’s inveterate enemies. Turkey is the second country after Pakistan to raise the Kashmir issue several times on all platforms (national, regional and international). Since the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir in August 2019 and the subsequent reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory, Turkey has become a more vociferous critic of the Indian establishment.
Erdogan’s constant advocacy of the Kashmir issue, particularly at the UN General Assembly since 2000, has earned him accolades from Kashmiri separatist leadership. Mirwaiz Umer Farooq once dubbed him an “ardent supporter of Kashmiri right to self-determination.” Turkey, too, has maintained a close relationship with Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami, the fountainhead of Jihad in the Indian subcontinent. Its stooge, Hizbul Mujahideen, has created a vicious situation in Kashmir since the late 1980s and is still involved in several terrorist activities against India. The same Jamaat glorifies Turkey as the “hope of the Ummah” and Erdogan as “a great leader of the Muslim world”.
Turkey has redoubled its activities against India in recent times by 1) creating employment opportunities for Kashmiri journalists to spread anti-India propaganda, 2) offering scholarships for Indian Muslims, especially youth, to inject hatred against India, and 3) funding NGOs in India to influence Indian Muslims.
A Turkish jihadist group masquerading as a charity organisation, Insan Hak ve Hurriyetleri ve Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH) or Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Reliefs, has ties with the Popular Front of India (PFI), a banned Islamic terrorist organization has been accused of promoting radical Islam and maintaining ties with terrorist groups inside and outside India.
According to a report published in 2020, the IHH, known as the “long arm of Justice and Development Party”, had hosted a couple of PFI leaders in Istanbul six years ago. Even Turkey’s state-run Anadolu News Agency promoted PFI’s activities. It is essential to note that the IHH has overt and covert links with the Turkish intelligence agency (MIT), al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadists and terrorists in Syria and Libya, and the Hamas terrorists.
In addition, Turkey invites, promotes and mobilises radical Kashmiri youth in Istanbul and Ankara for ideological and monetary support to work against India. Even Kashmiri separatist leader, late Ali Shah Geelani, who spewed venom against India throughout his life, shifted his daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren to Turkey. Turkey’s unholy ties with Pakistan came to light when 15 made-in-Turkey lightweight and high-precision Turkey-made Canik TP9 pistols (along with other ammunition) were recovered from Pakistani terrorists captured in Kashmir in early 2022. It is a matter of grave concern as Pakistan has been aiding and abetting terrorists from across the border against India for decades.
The dangerous nexus between Turkey and Pakistan, and now Bangladesh, and their hatred and animosity towards India will reverberate in the South Asia region in a dangerous tone in the coming times. This sorry state of affairs will result in an intractable security challenge for India, which has considerable stakes in South Asia. Turkey’s success in cementing further military ties with Bangladesh will have adverse effects for India leading to significant economic and strategic loss.
India’s entire neighbourhood is a den of pan-Islamic forces, be it Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives or Sri Lanka, which would provide Turkey to nurture its long-cherished dream of furthering pan-Islamism. Keeping in view the present antagonism of Bangladesh, Pakistan’s support of jihadist and terrorist activities and Turkey’s anti-India endeavours will turn this region into a shattered security zone, and India will have to bear the brunt.
Mahesh Ranjan Debata teaches at the Center for Inner Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.
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