India slams Turkey for ‘biased, inaccurate’ comments on Kashmir’s status

India said Turkey’s recent comments on Kashmir’s status were “incorrect, biased and unwarranted”, Live Mint website reported.

“The statement is factually incorrect, biased and unwarranted. We would urge the government of Turkey to get a proper understanding of the situation on the ground and refrain from interfering in matters internal to India,” Live Mint cited Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava as saying on Thursday.

Srivastava was responding to a statement on Wednesday by the Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson who said that the withdrawal of special powers of Jammu and Kashmir had not served peace and stability in the region.

The statement came on a day marking the first anniversary of the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. India had also bifurcated the state into two union territories.

The Indian government withdrew the autonomy of Kashmir last year in August, shutting down Internet access in the region and detaining activists and politicians.

In February, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the disputed Kashmir territory was of similar importance to Turkey as its own war of independence, during his speech in the Pakistani parliament.

“It was Çanakkale yesterday, and it is Kashmir today. There is no difference,” Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency quoted Erdoğan as saying, in reference to the battle for Gallipoli in north western Turkey between Turkey and Allied Powers in 1915 and 1916.

The Indian-Pakistani dispute over Kashmir has led to several conflicts since the countries’ partition in 1947.

“The Kashmir problem can be solved not by conflict or oppression, but on the basis of justice and equity,” Erdoğan said in his speech.