Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not mention Kashmir in his address at the United Nations General Assembly this year, the first time he has skipped the issue since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.The focus of his 35-minute speech on Tuesday was on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where over 40,000 people have died in Israeli attacks against Hamas.
After India scrapped the special status Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed under the Constitution in 2019, Erdogan has referred to Kashmir every year in his address to world leaders at the UNGA session here, while advocating talks between New Delhi and Islamabad.
However, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry insisted that Turkiye’s stance on the Kashmir issue remains unchanged, The Dawn newspaper reported.
Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at a weekly media briefing that “any undue inferences” should not be drawn from one statement.
Baloch said that Turkiye has “a consistent and principled position” on the dispute.
Erdogan’s skipping of the Kashmir reference is being seen as an apparent shift in Turkiye’s stance and comes at a time when the country is trying to become a member of the BRICS grouping.
India is among the founder members of the group, which is holding another summit next month.
Former Pakistani diplomat Maleeha Lodhi, who has also served as her country’s ambassador to the UN, commented on the apparent shift in Turkiye’s stance.
“Unlike the last 5 years, President Erdogan did not mention Kashmir in his speech to the UN General Assembly. He did that in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023,” she posted on X.