Pakistan's diplomatic mission in the capital Ankara hosted an event on Monday to mark both Kashmir Solidarity Day and commemorate the victims of the Feb. 6 earthquakes in Türkiye's southeast.
Hosted by Pakistan's Ambassador Yousaf Junaid, it was attended by the chairperson of the Human Rights Investigation Commission of the Turkish Parliament, Derya Yanık, the deputy head of the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) Hamza Taşdelen, Strategic Thinking Institute (SDE) Defense and Security Council Chairperson Güray Alpar and other guests.
The event, which began with the recitation of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, included the national anthems of both countries and the planting of pine saplings in the garden of the embassy in memory of those who lost their lives in the earthquakes centered in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaraş on Feb. 6, 2023.
"We are faced with a situation which has been going on for the last 37 years, which has caused many wars in the subcontinent, which sent tremors and shockwaves. But what is being done by the international community? "That is a question that we need to ask ourselves and for those who become or who try to become the champions of democracy and human rights. What has happened in Kashmir and what is happening in Gaza are two tragedies which we cannot turn away from," Junaid said in his speech.
Yanık underscored that Kashmir is an issue close to their hearts and is regarded as one of their own in Türkiye. She emphasized that the international system solves the issues it wants to and does not leave them in limbo. "Unfortunately, with similar issues like Palestine and Kashmir, we observe a certain indifference, perhaps even a conscious disregard," she added.
On Jan. 5, 1949, following a full-scale war between Pakistan and India in 1948, the U.N. Security Council pledged that a U.N.-supervised plebiscite would be held to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, but the exercise was never carried out. Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China. Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars, in 1948, 1965 and 1971. Two of them were over Kashmir. Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence or unification with neighboring Pakistan. According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.