Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, secretary general of the Washington-based World Kashmir Awareness Forum, on Thursday praised Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu for showing “full solidarity with Kashmiri brothers and sisters in the face of worsening human rights situation and demographic change”. 

In a statement, Fai described the Turkish foreign minister’s statement as bold and courageous. 

Speaking at the 2nd Trilateral Meeting of the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey in Islamabad, the Turkish foreign minister said, “We expressed our full solidarity with our Kashmiri brothers and sisters in the face of worsening human rights situation and demographic change, especially in the last two years. We believe unilateral steps complicate the situation further. We reaffirm our concern and expectation, which were also addressed during the OIC ministerial meeting in Niger. We believe in dialogue and peaceful settlement of Kashmir dispute within the framework of the United Nations Security Council resolutions.” 

Fai said, “We in particular would like to express our thanks to the government of Turkey for reiterating that the peaceful settlement of Kashmir dispute has to be explored in accordance with the United Nations Security Council resolution. This is consistent with the statement issued by Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations on August 8, 2019 that the position of the UN was that the Kashmir issue should be resolved under United Nations Charter and under applicable United Nations Security Council resolution.” 

We are also thankful to Jeyhun Bayramov, the foreign minster of Azerbaijan who joined both Mr. Cavusoglu and Mr. Shah Mahmood Quraishi, the foreign minister of Pakistan, in issuing a joint statement of solidarity with the oppressed people of Kashmir. They reaffirmed the fact that the Kashmir dispute needed to be resolved under the UN resolutions. The joint statement was significant because the history testifies that bilateral talks between India and Pakistan had failed and resulted in more pain and suffering for the people of the territory. 

Fai said time has come to have trilateral dialogue between the governments of India, Pakistan and the leadership of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. In fact, any process that ignores the wishes and aspirations of the people of Kashmir and is designed to side track the United Nations will not only prove to be an exercise in futility but can also cause incalculable human and political damage.