Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, stressing a \u2018peaceful and just solution\u2019 to the Kashmir dispute, said Turkey would continue to extend unflinching support to the stance of Kashmiri brethren at all fora.<\/p>\n
\u201cTurkey believes that the Kashmir issue can not be resolved through oppressive means, but on the basis of principles of justice and peace,\u201d the Turkish president said in his address to the joint session of Parliament.<\/p>\n
This was the fourth time Tayyip Erdogan addressed the Parliament of Pakistan \u2013 earlier twice as Turkey\u2019s premier and once as president.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Imran Khan, cabinet members, parliamentarians from treasury and opposition benches, services chiefs and ambassadors attended the session.<\/p>\n
The 24-minute speech of Tayyip Erdogan, who arrived here Thursday on a two-day official visit, focused on Pakistan and Turkey\u2019s joint road-map of development and prosperity, Turkey\u2019s support for Kashmir cause and need for unity among Islamic countries to fight common challenges including poverty and Islamophobia.<\/p>\n
President Erdogan mentioned that Turkey openly defended the just struggle of Kashmiris at the 74th session of United Nations General Assembly in New York and during all meetings of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation
\n(OIC).<\/p>\n
He said India\u2019s unilateral step on changing the status of Jammu and Kashmir had further aggravated the problems faced by Kashmiris. \u201cCurbing the freedom rights of Kashmiris and putting them under siege, will be in no one\u2019s interest,\u201d he said, adding only peaceful negotiations could pave the way towards solution acceptable to all stakeholders.<\/p>\n
Erdogan stressed that apart from their mutual rifts, it was religious duty of all Islamic countries to stand for the oppressed Muslims anywhere in the world, may it be in Palestine, Cyprus or Kashmir.<\/p>\n
President Erdogan said Pakistan was heading in the right direction in its journey towards development and mentioned that the tough road to prosperity required determination, faith and struggle as main ingredients.<\/p>\n
He expressed the confidence that in an environment of cooperation among legislature, judiciary and armed forces, Pakistan would soon reap fruits of economic stability as immense foreign investment poured in during recent months.<\/p>\n
Erdogan said he had arrived along with a high-powered delegation to participate in the sixth meeting of Pak-Turk High Level Strategic Cooperation Council with heavy agenda on strengthening business relations
\nand other areas.<\/p>\n
He said a road-map would be devised based on strategic economic framework, outlining trade, investment infrastructure and tourism.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 210 million people of Pakistan and 8.3 million Turkish people will stand shoulder-by-shoulder in achieving their common goal of strong bilateral economic ties,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He recalled that implementation on the previous agreements, reached upon during visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to Turkey, was in full progress.<\/p>\n
Turkish President Erdogan paid tribute to Pakistan in successfully overcoming a long fight against terrorism.<\/p>\n
Erdogan said he was well-aware of the difficulties faced by Pakistan in dealing with aftermath of regional conflicts as Turkey itself braved for 35 years, the terrorist and separatist activities of extremist outfits
\nincluding Daesh, Kurdish PKK and Fetullah Gulen\u2019s FETO.<\/p>\n
He thanked Pakistan\u2019s for allowing to take over FETO-linked schools in Pakistan by Turkey\u2019s Maarif Foundation and also for supporting the \u2018Operation Peace Spring\u2019 military operation conducted by Turkey in north of Syria.<\/p>\n
\u201cContrary to those indulging in mere rhetoric of democracy and human values, Pakistan has always extended a real support to Turkey for which we are extremely grateful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Erdogan assured Pakistan of continued support on all issues including its stance on Financial Action Task Force (FATF).<\/p>\n
He lauded Pakistan\u2019s efforts for resumption of peace in Afghanistan with an objective of regional stability.<\/p>\n
The Turkish President criticized the peace plan, presented by the U.S. President Donald Trump, saying it was meant to illegally occupy the land. He also condemned the Israeli attacks on the Bait-ul-Maqdas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, stressing a \u2018peaceful and just solution\u2019 to the Kashmir dispute, said Turkey would continue to extend unflinching support to the stance of Kashmiri brethren at all fora. \u201cTurkey believes that the Kashmir issue can not be resolved through oppressive means, but on the basis of principles of justice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13034"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13036,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13034\/revisions\/13036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}