AJK Presidents urges Turkey to play role of mediator in resolving Kashmir dispute.

MIRPUR (AJK) -- Azad Jammu Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan said on Monday that the people of Pakistan and Kashmir had reposed their full trust in the Turkish leadership who had recognized the Kashmir matter as not a bilateral one but as an issue between Pakistan, India and the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

'We urge Turkey to play the role of a mediator in helping resolve this long-standing dispute', the AJK president made these remarks while addressing the opening session of the two-day international conference on 'Kashmir: Regional and International Dimensions' organized by Faculty of Letters, Istanbul University, AJK president's office told media Monday evening.

The event was attended by Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz, Pakistan's Ambassador to Turkey H.E Syrus Sajjad Qazi, Rector Istanbul University Prof. Dr. Mehmut AK, Member of Turkish Parliament and Chairman Turkey-Pakistan Parliamentary Friendship Group Mr. Ali Sahin, Lord Nazir Ahmed and Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai.

The AJK president expressed his deepest gratitude to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who in his address to the Pakistani Parliament, in 2017 and 2020, expressed strong solidarity with the people of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and advocated a diplomatic solution for ascertaining the Kashmiris' right to self-determination.

The AJK president said people of Kashmir were indebted to President Erdogan for raising the Kashmir issue during last year's United Nations General Assembly in which once again he reiterated a diplomatic resolution to the dispute and during which he sharply criticized India for the steps taken on 5th August that year.

People of Turkey and Kashmir, maintained the Masood Khan, had a strong bond because after the devastating 2005 earthquake, Turkey helped rebuild three major AJK cities. 'A deep Turkish imprint has been left on the hearts and minds of the Kashmir people', he said.

The president was deeply moved by the comments of Mr. Ali Sahin who expressed his solidarity with the Kashmiri people by saying 'Children of Srinagar are children of Ankara. Women of Kashmir Valley are the women of Anatolia. Tears of the Kashmiri mothers are the tears of Turkish mothers'.

The AJK president said the people of Jammu and Kashmir had been striving for their liberty and freedom for the past 200 years; first, during the despotic rule of the Maharaja of Kashmir and now after 1947, against India's rule in the occupied...