Pakistan-Türkiye Yüksek Düzeyde Askeri Diyalog Grubunun 13. Toplantısı Ankara'da düzenlendi

ANKARA, 22 Şubat 2018: Türkiye-Pakistan Yüksek Düzeyde Askeri Diyalog Grubunun (HLMDG) 13. Toplantısı Ankara'da 19-23 Şubat tarihlerinde düzenlendi.  Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Genelkurmay Başkan Yardımcısı Orgeneral Ümit Dündar Türk heyetine başkanlık ederken, Savunma Bakanı Emekli Korgeneral Zamir-Ul-Hasan Shah görüşmelerde Pakistan heyetine başkanlık etti.

Toplantıdan önce, Emekli Korgeneral Zamir-Ul-Hasan Shah Türk Genelkurmay Başkanı Orgeneral Hulusi AKAR ve Türk Genelkurmay Başkan YardımcısıOrgeneral Ümit DÜNDAR'la görüşmelerde bulundu.

HLMDG toplantısı sırasında, her iki heyet askeri eğitim, talim, savunma endüstrisi işbirliği, bölgesel güvenlik ve terörizmle savaş konularındaki karşılıklı işbirliğinin tüm yönlerini tartıştı. 

Her iki taraf özellikle Orta Doğu, Güney Asya ve Afganistan'a dair olan güvenlik, terörizm karşıtı ve bölgesel ortama ait karşılıklı çıkar alanları üzerinde görüş alışverişinde bulundu.  Bunun yanı sıra, heyetler Ocak 2017'de Pakistan'da düzenlenmiş olan son HLMDG toplantısından beri kaydedilmiş olan ilerlemeleri değerlendirdiler. 

Emekli Korgeneral Zamir-Ul-Hasan Shah aynı zamanda Milli Savunma Bakanıyla ve Savunma Sanayisi Müsteşarıyla da görüştü ve ASELSAN, TAI, HAVELSAN ve ROKETSAN dahil savunma sanayi firmalarını ziyaret etti. 

Konuşmalar içten ve samimi bir atmosferde düzenlendi.  Heyet liderleri savunmayla ve güvenlikle alakalı meselelerde işbirliğini geliştirme kararını aldı.  HLMDG Pakistan ve Türkiye arasındaki en yüksek düzeydeki kurumsal mekanizmadır ve savunma alanındaki bağları geliştirmek için politikalar ve eylem planları düzenlemekle yükümlüdür.  Pakistan-Türkiye HLMDG toplantısının bir sonraki oturumu 2019'da Pakistan'da düzenlenecektir.


13th meeting of Pakistan-Turkey High Level Military Dialogue Group held in Ankara

ANKARA, 22 February 2018: The 13th meeting of Turkey-Pakistan High Level Military Dialogue Group (HLMDG) was held in Ankara from 19-23 February. General Umit DUNDAR, Deputy Chief of Turkish General Staff, Republic of Turkey led Turkish delegation, while Lt. Gen. (Retd) Zamir-Ul-Hasan Shah, Secretary Defence led Pakistan delegation in the talks.

Prior to the meeting, Lt. Gen. (Retd) Zamir-Ul-Hasan Shah had meetings with General Hulusi AKAR, Chief of Turkish General Staff, and General Umit DUNDAR, Deputy Chief of Turkish General Staff.

During the HLMDG meeting, both delegations discussed all avenues of mutual cooperation in military training, education, defence industry cooperation, regional security and fight against terrorism. Both sides reaffirmed the resolve to further deepen defence cooperation.

Both sides deliberated upon areas of mutual interest, including security, counter terrorism and prevailing regional environment particularly with reference to Middle East, South Asia and Afghanistan. Besides, delegations took stock of the progress that has been made since the last HLMDG meeting held in Pakistan in January 2017.

Lt. Gen. (Retd) Zamir-Ul-Hasan Shah also held meetings with Minister for National Defence, Undersecretary for Defence Industry, and visited defence industry firms including ASELSAN, TAI, HAVELSAN and ROKETSAN.


Talks were held in a most cordial and congenial atmosphere. Delegation leaders resolved to enhance cooperation in defence and security related issues. The HLMDG is the highest level of institutional mechanism between Pakistan and Turkey, mandated to charter policies and action plans to promote ties in the defence field. The next session of Pakistan-Turkey HLMDG meeting will be held in Pakistan in 2019.

The Stone Pelter’s Dilemma!!! By Abdul Akbar

The Stone Pelter’s Dilemma!!!
By Abdul Akbar, First Secretary, Embassy of Pakistan Ankara
This will be the fate of the stone-pelters!” shouted an Indian military official on a megaphone, as a military convoy drove past shell-shocked bystanders on 9 April 2017, in Utligam village in Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir.

At the head of the military convoy was an Indian military jeep - with a young Kashmiri man tied with ropes to its front, writhing in agony and pain. That’s the “fate” that the Indian military official was warning about.

For nearly four hours the convoy was paraded through village after village, instilling terror in the hearts of men, women and children alike, repeatedly announcing: “This will be the fate of the stone-pelters!”

The brutal demonstration of power, instead of terrorising the masses, resulted in protests erupting all across Jammu and Kashmir. As the video of the incident went viral on social media, believers in basic values of human dignity and respect called for holding those responsible accountable.

The response to the wide spread outrage was, however, characteristic of the decades-long Indian policy in the region - adding insult to the injury. The individual responsible for parading the young Kashmiri as ‘human shield’ was not only awarded the Indian Chief of Army Staff’s Commendation card, but his shameful act was praised by the Indian Government for “boosting the morale of soldiers”.

Standing among the shell-shocked bystanders watching the ‘human shield’ parade, the Stone Pelter, a young Kashmiri boy- still hiding a stone in his hand – felt shivers of fear go down his spine. Will this also be my fate one day, the thought froze his heart with foreboding. “I cannot bear this inhuman treatment, torture and humiliation” he murmured to himself.

As he walked back from the “human shield” parade, he questioned why he could not live a normal life like all other human beings? Why his heavenly hometown had been turned into a dreadful prison by 700,000 Indian troops, making it one of the most heavily militarized zones in the world. He felt that his life was worse than a caged animal’s. Why was it that he was being denied rights that most other human beings took for granted? Why must he live with the pain of not being able to help his sister who was brutally raped by soldiers of the occupation army? Why did he have to bury a brother, the dead body riddled with countless pellet marks? Why does his mother stand by the door of their house waiting for a husband who left for his daily work one morning and never made it safely back in the evening ?

But the teachers in his school also say that there is a brighter world outside, the world whose conscience is still alive; there are people who still value human life and dignity; who still listen to the inner voices of their hearts; and who have yet not sold their humanity to pragmatic materialism.

The young stone-pelter cannot reconcile that image with the grim reality he experiences everyday in Indian Occupied Kashmir. In the world he knows of, all his friends and their families share similar stories. Every house is in perpetual mourning in this man-made hell in God-made heaven. Scenes of horrific brutalities are his only childhood memories. His half-widow mother tells him 94,000 Kashmiris have laid down their lives in this just struggle for self-determination. Hundreds perished in the custody of the Indian security forces. Thousands of women have been raped and molested. Every other day a new mass grave, now in hundreds, is discovered.

She tells him that after the extrajudicial killing of a young, charismatic Kashmiri leader, Burhan Muzaffar Wani on 8th July 2016, spontaneous protests erupted all across Occupied Jammu & Kashmir. Indian occupation forces resorted to indiscriminate force and brutality to suppress these protests.  The occupation army killed more than 170 Kashmiris of all ages with their dreaded pellet guns – if the gun did not kill you, it maimed you horribly, taking your eye-sight, crippling you, killing you while you still live. 

His mother also says that India’s own leadership had not only promised an end to its occupation to the people of Jammu & Kashmir, but also to Pakistan and the international community. On 31 October 1947, Indian Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru wrote “… that we shall withdraw our troops from Kashmir as soon as peace and order is restored and leave the decision regarding the future of the State (of Jammu & Kashmir) to the people of the State is not merely a promise to your government but also to the people of Kashmir, and to the world.”

The young stone pelter’s mind is baffled by what he hears and what he sees.  He is startled how easily India forgot its promise and at the blatant audacity of the Indian Government to deny access to human rights organizations to the weeping valley of Kashmir. He knows, despite all international condemnation and calls for investigations into decades of atrocities against Kashmiris, no one has been held accountable so far.

His mother tells him that losing hope is not in the blood of Kashmiris. She says that there are still people with conscience alive. There are world leaders who speak for them. There are countries that stand-by them. There are NGOs and other organizations that feel their pain and raise their voices for them. There are documented reports by different institutions, including the Independent Permanent Human rights Commission (IPHRC) of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) highlighting the continuous violation of fundamental human rights in the Indian Occupied Kashmir. The reports highlight the increase in the indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force against unarmed and innocent civilians and human rights activists by the Indian forces with impunity; torture; extrajudicial killings; rape; and mass blinding through use of pellets. Above all, the reports chronicle the denial of the Kashmiri’s inalienable right of self determination.

The young mind cannot fathom that India that brutalizes him, denies him his rights, wishes to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, an organization whose resolutions it has mockingly flouted for seven decades.

His young mind questions why the Pakistani Prime Minister’s demand at the United Nations General Assembly on 21 September 2017 to appoint a Special Envoy on Kashmir to ensure the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions has not yielded any results.  Are all the calls made to halt pellet gun attacks and other violence against unarmed demonstrators in Jammu & Kashmir; stop the use of rape as an instrument of state policy by Indian security forces; end media blackouts; rescind draconian “laws” encouraging impunity; and free all Kashmiri political leaders under detention, unreasonable and illegitimate?  

Frightened, baffled and heartbroken, the young stone-pelter questions himself how many more nights of oppression, rapes, torture and killings would it take to jolt the conscience of the international community? How many more Kashmiris must lose their eyes to pellet-guns before the world opens its eyes to this oppression? How long will the Kashmiris be used as human shields, like in Utligam village, before the international community stands up to shield them?
The stone-pelter finds no satisfactory answers to his questions. He traces his steps back to join his other young class fellows who stand fearlessly in front of the Indian troops with stones in their hands and the belief in their hearts that no occupation force in this world is powerful enough to stamp out what people truly believe in. The stone-pelters are real-life Davids against power drunk Goliaths. They know that in the end they will prevail, but they ask why the world must take so long to say, “Enough” to India.  


It is time that the stone-pelter gets an honest answer.

PS: Turkish version of this article appeared in Turkish daily Yeni Şafak on 5 February 2018. External link https://www.yenisafak.com/hayat/tas-atanin-ikilemi-3089197

Keşmir meselesinin çözülmesi için sarsılmaz Türk desteği yeniden teyit edildi

ANKARA, 6 Şubat 2018: Toplumun çeşitli kesimlerini temsil eden yüzlerce Türk “Keşmir Dayanışma Günü Seminerine” katıldı ve Hint İşgalindeki Keşmir’in baskı 
altındaki insanlarıyla güçlü dayanışma isteklerini ifade etti ve demokratik kendi kaderini belirleme hakları için gözü kara desteklerini yeniden ifade etti.  Seminer Keşmir Dayanışma Gününü anmak için Pazartesi sabahı Ankara’da Ekonomik ve Sosyal Araştırmalar Merkezi (ESAM) ve Ankara’daki Pakistan Büyükelçiliğinin ortak işbirliğiyle düzenlendi. 

Çok sayıda saygıdeğer kişi, siyasi çalışan, akademik kişiler ve araştırmacılar, öğrenciler, medya, sivil toplum temsilcileri ve Pakistan topluluğu üyeleri seminere katıldı. 

Saadet Partisi Başkanı Sayın Temel Karamollaoğlu, Türkiye Dışişleri Bakan Yardımcısı Sayın Ahmet Yıldız, ESAM Başkanı Sayın Recai Kutan ve Türk Parlamentosundaki Türkiye-Pakistan Parlamenter Dostluk Grubu Başkanı Sayın Muhammet Balta katılımcılara hitap etti.  Kendileri Keşmir halkının temel hakları için verdiği ısrarlı mücadeleden övgüyle söz ettiler ve Birleşmiş Milletler Güvenlik Konseyi kararlarında belirtildiği üzere bu en uzun süreli anlaşmazlığın Keşmir halkının isteklerine göre erkenden çözülmesi için çağrıda bulundular.  Kendileri aynı zamanda Keşmir anlaşmazlığı en son olarak çözümlenene kadar Pakistan’a Türk desteğinin devam etmesi için yeniden güvence verdiler. 

Türkiye’nin değişmez desteğini öven Pakistan’ın Türkiye Büyükelçisi Syrus Sajjad Qazi Pakistan halkının Keşmirli kardeşleriyle tam bir dayanışma içinde durduğunu söyledi.  Kendisi dinleyicileri acımasız insan hakları ihlalleri hakkında bilgilendirdi ve hiçbir orandaki zalim gücün Keşmir halkının isteklerini kırmaya yetmediğini de ekledi.  

Bunun sonrasında, kayda değer bir akademik ve eski bir Türk Parlamentosu üyesi olan Prof. Dr. Oya Akgönenç Keşmir üzerindeki bir panel tartışmasının moderatörlüğünü yaptı.  Panelistler arasında Prof. Dr. Sencer İmer, Prof. Dr. M. Seyfettin Erol ve araştırmacı öğrenci Aydın Güven vardı.  Panelistler Keşmir anlaşmazlığının ortaya çıkışını detaylarıyla tartıştılar.  Kendileri Güney Asya’da barışın ve istikrarın Keşmir sorununun Keşmir halkının isteklerine göre adil bir biçimde çözülmesine dayanmış olarak kaldığı görüşündeydiler.  

İşgal Altındaki Keşmir’de Hint güvenlik güçlerinin yaptığı insan hakları ihlallerini vurgulayan bir belgesel de ayrıca gösterildi. Cammu ve Keşmir’in baskı altındaki insanlarının daha önce anlatılmamış acılarını betimleyen bir fotoğraf sergisi de konferans yerinde gösterime sunuldu.