Turkey is planning to send Syrian Jihadists to fight in Kashmir, a Greek journalist has claimed. Andreas Mountzouralias has detailed the plans of Turkish President Erdogan in his report titled ‘Erdogan sends mercenaries to Kashmir’ on Pentapostagama. As per the report, it is part of Erdogan’s attempt to replace Saudi Arabia’s premier position in the Islamic world by extending his influence in South Asia.
The report also claimed that Pakistan and Turkey are in talks for a permanent presence of surface units and aircraft of the Pakistani Defense Ministry in the Turkish operation ‘Shield of the Mediterranean’, a plan to plunder Greece and conquer Greek lands. The report quoted local sources to claim that Abu Emsa, head of the brigade of Suleiman Shah, a gang that joined the Syrian National Army (SMO), recently told its members in Afrin that the Turkish state wishes to interfere in matters of Kashmir.
Abu Emsa also apparently told them that the recruits would receive $2000 for their participation. Özkan Torunlar, Turkish ambassador to India, meanwhile, denied the claims made in the report. He told India Today TV that “these reports are baseless and false”. Turkey has raked up the Kashmir issue and the abrogation of Article 370 in international platforms on several occasions. Erdogan said in the Pakistan parliament that Kashmir was an issue important to both Pakistan and Turkey.
Recently, it was revealed that senior members of Islamist organisation PFI had met an Al-Qaeda linked Turkish NGO, IHH, prior to the Lok Sabha elections. The Nordic Monitor says that IHH works with Turkish intelligence service MIT, led by Erdogan loyalist Hakan Fidan, an Islamist as well. It also said that the PFI was promoted by Turkic state-run media Anadolu as a civic and social group the members of which were abused by Indian police. The IHH was accused to have smuggled arms to Al-Qaeda affiliated Jihadists in Syria in January 2014.