Turkey’s tentacles moving to India: Ankara intends to transfer mercenaries to Kashmir

Amira Sherif

It seems that Turkey’s intervention in the Kashmir file is a new chapter of Turkish interference within the framework of its expansion projects following Ankara’s involvement in supporting terrorist and militant groups in Syria and Libya, in addition to extending its influence in regions in Africa, where media reports indicate that Turkey has begun preparing to transfer a number of mercenaries to the Kashmir region to fight against India, after having previously sent them to Libya and Azerbaijan.

Earlier, the Indian Foreign Ministry called on Ankara not to interfere in its internal affairs, in response to Turkish interference in a case that has been pending for years and sparked conflicts and wars between Islamabad and New Delhi.

New Delhi stressed its rejection of all statements issued by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the situation in the Indian part of Kashmir following his visit to Islamabad at the beginning of this year.

Furat News Agency, citing sources in northern Syria, stated that Abu Amsha, the leader of the Turkish-backed terrorist Suleiman Shah Brigades, which is part of the so-called Free Secret Army, informed its members five days ago that Ankara wanted to send reinforcements to Kashmir, explaining that Turkish officers will ask the leaders of terrorist groups in Syria to list the names of the fighters who want to go to fight in Kashmir, indicating that Turkey intends to pay $2,000 for each fighter who is registered on the list of travelers to Kashmir.

The agency confirmed that Ankara was collecting fighters from the regions of Azaz, Jarablus, Al-Bab, Afrin and Idlib, explaining that it would secretly transfer the fighters to Kashmir.

Turkey is facing wide international criticism because of its wide global fame in igniting conflicts in the region by transferring mercenaries from one country to another.

The Sham Legion includes the Syrian faction closest to Turkey, which includes most of the mercenaries that Ankara uses to fight alongside it on several fronts inside and outside Syria.

This faction was established in March 2014 after the merger of a number of armed factions that were active in northern and central Syria, as well as in the countryside of Damascus, and its name quickly emerged on the Syrian scene.

The Legion was part of the Army of Conquest coalition, which included a number of opposition factions and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). It took control of the entire Idlib governorate in the summer of 2015, before the Sham Legion launched a fight at a later time against HTS, which was almost alone in controlling the province Idlib and some neighboring areas.

The Legion has participated in the three military operations carried out by Turkey since 2016 in Syria, focused especially against Kurdish fighters.

On Friday, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, announced in a press conference that the European Union countries are ready to impose sanctions on Turkey because of its “unilateral actions and hostile rhetoric.”

Indian-Pakistani relations have witnessed tensions and escalation that threatened a new war between the two nuclear countries against the backdrop of Pakistan’s shooting down of two Indian Air Force planes within its airspace in Kashmir last February.

Turkey and Qatar stand by Pakistan in the Kashmir issue against India, just as Pakistan supports the Turkish occupation in northeastern Syria.

Erdogan seeks to provoke the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by trying to draw close to Pakistan and working to marginalize the close relations between Riyadh and Islamabad.

These developments come as Erdogan moves to bring Islamabad to his side, after it boycotted the Islamic summit of Kuala Lumpur hosted by Malaysia, which Turkey mobilized as part of efforts to establish a parallel entity to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and also in the framework of his attempts to limit the Saudi role that is balanced regionally and internationally.