The Turkish Foreign Ministry said that India’s change of the constitutional status of the Jammu and Kashmir region under its control further complicated the situation in the region and harmed the region’s peace and stability.
This came in a written statement issued by the ministry’s spokesman, Hami Aksoy, coinciding with the first anniversary of New Delhi’s abolition of the autonomy status from the region.
The statement stressed that Turkey sees the need to solve the problem through dialogue, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and on the basis of its relevant resolutions.
On August 5, 2019, the Indian government abolished Article 370 of the constitution, which guarantees self-government in the Muslim-majority region of Jammu and Kashmir, and then divided it into two regions administered by the federal government.
The region has enjoyed a special status since 1954 under the Indian constitution, which allowed it to enact its own laws, in addition to the Law on the Protection of Nationality, which prevented strangers(Non-Kashmiris) from settling in and owning lands.
At a time when India and Pakistan control parts of Kashmir, each party demands full annexation of it, while China too controls a small piece of it.
In the context of the conflict over Kashmir, Pakistan and India fought 3 wars in 1948, 1965 and 1971, which resulted in the killing of about 70 thousand people on both sides.
Since 1989, more than 100 thousand Kashmiri people have been killed, and more than 10 thousand women have been raped, according to human rights organizations.
Kashmiri militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir are fighting Indian forces for autonomy/independence or unity with neighboring Pakistan.
