Turkish president's Kashmir remarks 'global warning'

ISTANBUL

Turkish President's remarks about the Kashmir issue in his address to the 74th UN General Assembly is a "global warning", said a ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party deputy on Wednesday.

"Despite the UN Security Council decision about Kashmir which allows Kashmiris to determine their own fate through a plebiscite in 1948, India has violated and disregarded international law by failing to implement it," Ali Sahin, who is also chairman for the Turkey-Pakistan Interparliamentary Friendship Group, told Anadolu Agency.

"President Erdogan's remarks about Kashmir at the UN General Assembly are a global warning," Sahin said, stressing that the Kashmir issue concerns the security and stability of all of South Asia.

Erdogan on Tuesday told the UN body that only dialogue can find a solution to the Kashmir issue that awaits a solution for 72 years.

"In order for the Kashmiri people to look at a safe future together with their Pakistani and Indian neighbors, it is imperative to solve the problem through dialogue and on the basis of justice and equity, but not through collision," said Erdogan.

"It should be well known that the evolution of the Kashmir crisis into a war will not have a winner, but two losers," Sahin added.

Tensions across the Line of Control -- a de facto border dividing Kashmir between Pakistan and India -- heightened in recent weeks after the Indian government scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on Aug. 5.

Since then, the Muslim-majority region has been under a near-complete lockdown as the government has blocked communication and imposed strict restrictions to thwart any rebellion, while political leaders in the region have been detained.

Several rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have repeatedly called on New Delhi to lift the restrictions and release political detainees.

From 1954 until this Aug. 5, Jammu and Kashmir had special provisions under which it enacted its own laws. The provisions also protected the region's citizenship law, which barred outsiders from settling in and owning land in the territory.

India and Pakistan both hold Kashmir in parts and claim it in full. China also controls part of the contested region, but it is India and Pakistan who have fought two wars over Kashmir.

"Given that both Pakistan and India are two nuclear powers, the Kashmir issue is no longer a regional issue, but a global stability and security issue," Sahin said.

The region is the world's most densely populated area which would lead to a global catastrophe if strong and serious measures were not taken, he added.

*Writing by Sibel Ugurlu