Defence body head says Israel was forced to apologise due to Turkish govt’s stand on Freedom Flotilla
Senate’s Defence Committee Chairman Senator Mushahid Hussain on Sunday said that the historic Freedom Flotilla in 2010 was a bold attempt by the Turkish humanitarian organisation (IHH) not only to provide relief items to the long-suffering people of Gaza, but to highlight the Palestinian cause at international level.
He was making the keynote speech at a seminar on “Middle East Today with Special Perspective of Turkey and Pakistan”. Turkish Ambassador to Pakistan Sadik Babur Girgin was chief guest.
Senator Hussain said Pakistan has a proven track record of supporting freedom movements in the Middle East unconditionally as the Pakistanis had a pan-Islamic ethos, evident in the foreign policies of Quaid-e-Azam as well as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He said Pakistan provided diplomatic passports to Tunisian and Algerian freedom fighters in the 1950s.
“Pakistan was the only non-Arab country which participated in the October 1973 Arab-Israel War and our PAF pilots flying from Syrian airbases shot down Israeli warplanes,” he said, adding that Bhutto even offered to provide troops to Syrian President Hafez al Assad if Damascus came under threat from Israel.
Senator Hussain also told the audience that Pakistan had the honour of being the first country where the PLO under Yasser Arafat achieved recognition at the Lahore Islamic Summit in April 1974 as the ‘sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people’.
Talking on Pakistan-Turkey relations, he said that both countries enjoyed warm people-to-people friendship as Pakistani and Turk people have maintained very close long-standing bilateral ties.
“To pay tribute to the great contribution of Turkey’s founding leader Mustafa Kamal Ataturk, whom he greatly admired, the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, announced Day of National Mourning, on behalf of All India Muslim League, on the sad demise of Ataturk in 1938,” he informed.
The senator said Turkey was a success story and role model for today’s Muslim world because Prime Minister Erdogan has provided good governance, economic development, political stability and independent foreign policy, turning Turkey around in the last 12 years.
He was of the view that due to Turkish government’s firm stand on the Freedom Flotilla, Israel was forced to apologise on the insane attack which resulted in death and injury of innocent humanitarian workers, following huge condemnation by the international community. He said the Middle East was in turmoil because of the wide gap between the oppressive rulers and the oppressed ruled, and the ‘power of public opinion’ had revolted against decades of misrule, tyranny and corruption by family-led dynasties.
Nadeem Ahmed Khan, chairman of Khubaib Foundation, who was present in the flotilla, also spoke and praised the courageous role of the Turkish government during the movement.