India summons Turkish envoy, issues demarche

New Delhi: Lashing out for the second time in three days at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s extremely controversial remarks supporting Islamabad on the Kashmir issue while on a visit to Pakistan recently, India summoned the Turkish envoy in New Delhi on Monday and issued a “strong demarche”, saying the remarks are “one more example of a pattern of Turkey interfering in the internal affairs of other countries” which “India finds completely unacceptable”. In “response to a media query on comments made by the President of Turkey on India’s internal matters during his recent visit to Pakistan”, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, “India has made a strong demarche with the Turkish government on the remarks made by President Erdogan on the Indian Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir during his recent visit to Islamabad. India made a strong demarche with the Turkish government.” The MEA added, “This recent episode is but one more example of a pattern of Turkey interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. The demarche was made by secretary to the ambassador of Turkey in New Delhi earlier today.” Just on Saturday, “in response to queries regarding references to Jammu & Kashmir by the Turkish President and the Turkey-Pakistan Joint Declaration”, the MEA had said, “India rejects all references to Jammu & Kashmir, which is an integral and inalienable part of India.