India and Turkey bonding.

 What came out of Aamir Khan's meeting with Turkish President Ardoan's wife, created an uproar.

 These pictures were discussed well on social media, TV, websites.  If all of them were asked to squeeze, then it was understood - Aamir Khan went to Turkey, this has angered many people in India.  but why?

 The answer may be found - because Turkey is a friend of Pakistan.

 Or as BJP's Rajya Sabha MP Subrahmanyam Swamy said that Turkey is 'anti-India' (anti-India).

 But are both these things true?

Diplomat MK Bhadrakumar, who was India's ambassador to Turkey, says, "This is absolutely nonsense, whoever is saying so has no understanding of Turkey."

 Is Turkey a friend or enemy of India?  To understand this, one has to delve into the past of the relationship.

First attempt at friendship

 India gained independence in 1947 and the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru preferred relations with Turkey from the beginning, including Turkey.

 AK Pasha, a professor of West Asia affairs at Delhi's JNU University, says that Nehru wanted to maintain good relations with Turkey right from the end of the Second World War.

 Professor Pasha says, "There Mustafa Kamal Pasha removed the Ottoman Sultan and established a secular, democratic republic, and Nehru was impressed that for the first time such a large Muslim nation was going to become a secular country. He wanted that  India should also become such a country ".

 But after the Second World War, when the world was divided into two poles headed by the United States and the then Soviet Union, and the Cold War began, Turkey went into the US camp and joined the NATO, the military organization of the western countries.  Pakistan joined the American camp.

 India was disappointed with this because India remained neutral during the Cold War, neither did it hold the hands of Western-led US forces, nor did it carry the flag of another communist Soviet Union-led faction.

Increased distance during the Cold War

 Professor Pasha says, "Nehru was deeply saddened that despite our efforts, Turkey joined the US with Western countries."

 So during the Cold War, the distance between India and Turkey kept increasing.  Turkey moved closer to the United States, India too began to approach the Soviet Union camp.

 And on the other hand Turkey and Pakistan went on to become friends.  Turkey also provided military help to Pakistan.  Turkey greatly assisted Pakistan in the Indo-Pakistan Wars of 1965 and 1971.

 After this, when Turkey attacked Cyprus in 1974, relations between India and Turkey continued to deteriorate as India supported Cyprus because the President of Archbishop Makrios Naim was a big leader of the Non-Aligned Movement.

 Professor Pasha explains, "Indira Gandhi was deeply saddened by the fact that Turkey took over a part of Cyprus, after which she took action against Turkey in collaboration with the non-aligned leaders. There were many other events after that.  Since then, the distance between the two countries has increased, and Pakistan and Turkey have grown closer. "

 Second try for friendship

 Since Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1984, there have been several attempts to improve relations with Turkey.

 One of the main reasons for this was the issue of Kashmir, which started gaining momentum in the late 80s.

 At that time, the Organization of Muslim Countries OIC had formed a group to investigate the situation of human rights in Kashmir and countries like Turkey and Saudi Arabia were showing a lot of activism in it.

Professor Pasha says that at that time India felt that there would be close work from Turkey, and Prime Ministers like Narasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Turkey with an intention to improve the relationship.

 Similarly, Turkish Prime Minister Bulant Yevit also went to India and refused to go to India via Pakistan, saying that the ruler of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, had overthrown the democratic government.  He came directly to India.

 MK Bhadrakumar, who was India's ambassador to Turkey from 1998 to 2001, says, "When I was the ambassador, relations were very good, the Prime Minister went to India, he translated Bhagavad Gita and Gitanjali."

 Professor Pasha says, "By the time of 1990, 2001, it seemed that Turkey would now be close to India, except Pakistan, but in 2002, the situation started to change when Ardoan's party came to power in the name of Islam".

 Ardoan also tried

 The leader of the Justice and Development Party or AK Party, who came to power by making Islamism an issue, tried to change the identity of Turkey, which was created by Ataturk i.e. Mustafa Jamal Pasha.

 Not only this, they also started trying to make Turkey a leader and regional power of Muslim countries.  They started putting controversial issues related to Muslim communities on the international stage, including the Palestinian crisis and the Kashmir issue.

There were attempts to improve the relations between India and Turkey even during the rule of Ardoan, but Professor Pasha says that there were two big problems in this.

 The first problem was the trade imbalance between the two countries, which was in India's favor.  That is, India was sending more goods to Turkey, less demand from Turkey.  So Turkey wanted it to be repaired, India increased its imports, and also worked with Turkey in the Middle East on projects.

 The second problem was that Turkey does not have its own oil and gas.  Because of this, he wanted to make preparations to make nuclear power or nuclear power, because thorium is present here in the same way that it is found in Kerala in India.

 So Turkey wanted India to give them the technology to make electricity from thorium, but Professor Pasha says that India refused.

 Professor Pasha says, "Ardoan himself came to Delhi twice, in 2017 and in 2018, but he left angry that it is useless to hope with India."

 And since then, on one side, while India's proximity to countries like Israel, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the United States increased, Turkey moved further away.

 Former Ambassador MK Bhadrakumar says, "India-Turkey relations are not in the best state. There is a lot more to be done about our relationship with Turkey. More efforts than we are trying to do with our relations with Israel.  Take Turkey. "