Our Correspondent
Mirpur
Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan Saturday concluded his four-day visit to Turkey focusing on numerous activities in connection to on the Kashmir dispute, it was officially said. During his various engagements, he addressed a seminal two-day international conference on Kashmir and held meaningful meetings with important Turkish leaders and opinion-makers including Mr. Cevdet Yilmaz, Vice Chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) and Chairman of for Foreign Affairs; Ali Sahin, Turkish Parliamentarian and Chairman of Pakistan-Turkey Parliamentary Friendship Association; Chairman of the Asma Kopru, and Senol Kazanci, Director General and Chairman of the Board Anadolu Agency, AJK Presidential Secretariat said in a statement released to the media Saturday evening.
In his address as chief guest at the inaugural session of the event jointly organized by Lahore Center for Peace Research and Institute of Strategic Thinking in Ankara under the theme ‘Kashmir Turmoil: Emerging Threats to Peace and Role of International Community’, the AJK President reiterated upon the international community to end the ongoing atrocities in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) and upholding the inalienable right to self-determination of the Kashmiris in accordance with the UN resolutions.
The inaugural session had high-level Turkish and international representation, including the Chief Justice of Turkish Supreme Court, Ismail Cirit; President Religious Affairs (Grand Mufti), Dr. Ali Erbas; Deputy Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, Surreya Bilgic; Deputy Chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the Turkish Grand National Assembly; and Deputy Head of Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Erkan Akcay. Parliamentarians from Indonesia, Egypt and Iran were also present.
Message of the Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, Mustafa Sintop, was also read on the occasion. Senator Sherry Rehman, Ambassador Shamshad Ahmed and Lord Nazir Ahmed gave a compelling and comprehensive overview of the prevalent situation in the IOJ&K following India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019. The AJK President expressed his deep concern over the prevailing human rights and humanitarian situation in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir where nearly 9.5 million innocent Kashmiris continued to endure a collective blockade for the past 108 days. He added that events being witnessed in IOJ&K, according to the 10 steps of genocide prescribed by US-based Genocide Watch, were at advanced stages.
