At UNGA, Turkey needles India on Kashmir again: How Erdogan's 'Muslim brotherhood' with Pakistan eclipsed handshake with Modi

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York City on September 23, 2025. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s remark on Kashmir at the United Nations General Assembly laid bare Ankara’s choice to foreground solidarity with Pakistan over rebuilding ties with India. By urging a UN Security Council based dialogue and invoking “our Kashmiri brothers and sisters,” Erdogan repeated a well-worn script that pleases Islamabad but alienates New Delhi.

That posture matters because it comes after the April Pahalgam terror attack and India’s retaliatory Operation Sindoor in May, episodes that strained the region and triggered strong reactions. Turkey’s vocal backing of Pakistan, including diplomatic condemnation of India’s strikes and reported military support, has fed consumer-led boycott calls in India and hit Turkish tourism and trade. The UN remarks therefore expose a strategic tilt that could now have real economic and diplomatic costs.

What Erdogan’s UN remarks signal

At the UN General Assembly, Erdogan again raised Kashmir and called for a solution “according to UN resolutions” through dialogue that respects the aspirations of people in the region. The line mirrors Ankara’s long running narrative of framing Kashmir as an international concern and of aligning publicly with Pakistan’s position. Turkish foreign ministry language and Erdogan’s own speeches consistently stress solidarity with Muslim communities, and Kashmir is a key rhetorical touchpoint in that strategy.

The remarks are clearly far from being a neutral diplomatic posture. By using a global stage to turn a bilateral issue into a human rights and UN resolution frame, Erdogan signals that Turkey places shared religious and political identity with Pakistan above a pragmatic reset with New Delhi. That choice plays well to domestic Turkish audiences and to Islamist-leaning foreign constituencies, but it risks deepening strategic mistrust with India.

The backdrop: Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor

Tensions rose sharply after the Pahalgam terror attack in April, which killed 26 Indians and prompted an intense security response in Jammu and Kashmir. India’s Operation Sindoor in May this year targeted multiple terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The four-day escalation that followed became one of the most serious India-Pakistan crises in years.

Turkey publicly condemned India’s strikes and warned they risked an all-out war. The Turkish foreign ministry statement called the strikes “provocative” and urged restraint from both sides. That reaction placed Ankara squarely in Islamabad’s corner at a moment when New Delhi expected support or at least neutrality from global partners.

Multiple reports and analysts claim Turkey went beyond rhetoric by supplying or facilitating military materiel to Pakistan, including drones and associated know how that Pakistani forces used during the conflict. If accurate, such supply would be more than diplomatic posturing; it would be a tangible intervention that intensifies India’s security concerns and feeds narratives that Turkey is actively empowering Pakistan’s military options. These reports have been widely circulated in regional press and have sharply inflamed Indian public opinion. Readers should note that Ankara denied any intent to escalate the crisis while affirming its political support for Pakistan.

Turkey’s public support for Pakistan triggered fast and vocal consumer-led backlash across India. Calls to boycott Turkish products and to cancel travel plans to Turkey spread quickly on social media. Analysts estimate Indian tourist spending in Turkey was worth roughly ₹3,000–4,000 crore in 2024, a non-trivial slice of revenue for Turkey’s tourism industry.

The Modi-Erdogan handshake and why it did not reset ties

A public handshake and brief interaction between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Erdogan at the SCO summit in Tianjin last month suggested there was room for diplomatic management. The moment drew attention because both capitals had incentives to keep channels open. But, Erdogan’s UN remarks show that symbolic civility did not translate into a policy turnaround. Delhi continued to treat Kashmir as an internal matter and publicly rebuked external commentary, leaving any prospect of a warm reset fragile at best. The handshake proved more a photo opportunity than a foundation for trust.

Why Ankara chose this path

Erdogan’s stance flows from several calculated choices. Domestically, championing causes framed as Muslim solidarity helps shore up Erdogan’s political base. Regionally, Turkey seeks to project influence among Muslim majority countries and to position itself as a defender of Muslim causes at global fora. Strategically, Ankara may also be leveraging Pakistan ties to deepen military and industrial cooperation. Yet these short-term diplomatic gains run against the longer-term costs of alienating large economies like India and losing tourism, investment and trade opportunities.

Erdogan’s UN intervention shows how identity politics can reshape state behaviour in ways that complicate practical diplomacy. Turkey’s tilt toward Pakistan increases mistrust between Ankara and Delhi at a time when both countries could have found pragmatic reasons to stabilise ties. For India, external commentary that echoes Pakistan’s stance strengthens the argument that the dispute should not be internationalised.