Turkish foreign minister deserves our sincere appreciation: Dr. Fai

“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 frame work of the United Nations Security Council resolutions,” this was stated today by Amb. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the foreign minister of Turkey during 2nd Trilateral Meeting of the foreign minister of Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary General, Washington-based World Kashmir Awareness Forum has expressed sincere appreciation to this bold and courageous statement given by foreign minister Cavusoglu.

“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 is that the Kashmir issue should be resolved under United Nations Charter and Under applicable United Nations Security Council resolution,” Dr. Fai added.

We are also thankful to Amb. Jeyhun Bayramov, the foreign minster of Azerbaijan who joined both Mr. Cavusoglu and Mr. Shah Mehmood Qureishi, the foreign minister of Pakistan in issuing a joint statement of solidarity with the oppressed people of Kashmir and reaffirming the fact that Kashmir dispute needs to be resolved under UN resolutions. The joint statement is significant because the history testifies that bilateral talks between India and Pakistan have failed and have resulted in more pain and suffering of the people of the territory.

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