In the early hours of May 7, 2025, India obliterated nine terrorist training camps in Pakistan in response to an April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam in the Kashmir valley claimed by “The Resistance Front,” a Lashkar-e-Taiba proxy. Subsequently, the nuclear-armed neighbors engaged in drone and missile exchanges, with India inflicting massive damage, destroying Pakistan’s air defense systems and air bases. On May 10, New Delhi and Islamabad agreed to a U.S.-mediated ceasefire amidst unverified rumors of India’s attack on Pakistan’s nuclear storage facilities.
This short-lived conflict had a Middle Eastern angle. Israel came out as India’s strongest supporter. Turkey threw its weight behind Pakistan. On April 27, a Turkish military transport aircraft C-130 Hercules landed in Karachi, reportedly carrying drones. After three days, a high-ranking Turkish military delegation visited Pakistan, adding to India’s suspicions.
While India used Israel’s Harop drones to destroy Pakistan’s air defense systems, Pakistan used 350 Turkish drones, including the Asisguard Songar, Bayraktar TB2, and YIHA. Reportedly, the Pakistan army fired Bayraktar and YIHA drones for target designation, and carried out kamikaze strikes on India’s forward positions and supply convoys. Two Turkish advisors operating drones supposedly died in the Indian attacks.
Fast-spreading radicalization among India’s 200 million Muslims tempt Erdoğan’s dreams to reincarnate the caliphate and lead the Muslim world.
Turkey traditionally has supported Pakistan on the Kashmir issue in global forums. However, after Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s rise to power, Pakistan-Turkey relations have acquired an Islamist flavor. Since 2003, Erdoğan has visited Pakistan at least ten times. Pakistan has a robust defense partnership with Turkey that helps modernize Pakistan’s navy and air force.Not only did Turkey’s Bayraktar’s provide KEMANKEŞ cruise missiles and loitering munitions to Pakistan, but Turkey also has upgraded Pakistan’s Agosta 90B submarines. After India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi abrogated Article 370, a constitutional provision that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Ankara launched a propaganda war against India through its official Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) Corporation World. TRT gives wide coverage to Kashmir and Muslim issues in India slanted to malign India’s image. TRT employs several Kashmiri journalists with links to Pakistan’s intelligence.
Fast-spreading radicalization among India’s 200 million Muslims tempt Erdoğan’s dreams to reincarnate the caliphate and lead the Muslim world. Pursuing its Islamist agenda, Turkey hosted Zakir Naik, a radical preacher wanted in India, even after the Islamic State’s terrorists in Bangladesh credited him with their indoctrination. Turkey also reportedly hosted the leaders of Kashmir’s banned extremist outfit, Jamaat-e-Islami. The Popular Front of India, a banned Indian Islamist organization, maintained close ties with radical Turkish human rights groups. Not only are Turkish jihadists active in Kashmir, but Turkey also has unleashed Hamas in Kashmir’s terror landscape.
India has made a perfunctory effort to strengthen ties with Greece, Armenia, and Israel, but New Delhi has yet to seize the bull by the horns.
To counter this, India has made a perfunctory effort to strengthen ties with Greece, Armenia, and Israel, but New Delhi has yet to seize the bull by the horns. Most Indian diplomats have an outdated Cold War-era idea of Kemalist Turkey. As late as 2019, India’s influential think tanks and media portals refused to entertain any notion that Turkey was engaging in anti-India activities. New Delhi took five years after Turkey’s anti-India propaganda war following the abrogation of Article 370 to cancel the $2 billion ship-building contract with Turkey’s Anadolu shipyard. As Pakistan’s drones and missiles missed critical civilian and military targets such as airports and air bases, Turkish firm Çelebi was managing the ground services in nine Indian airports, including those of Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore. Turkey’s support to Pakistan woke Indian officials up to the security risk Çelebi potentially poses, leading to the revocation of their $200 million contract overnight.
Still, naivete persists. Just three months ago, the Ankara-based Foundation for Political, Economic, and Social Research and the New Delhi-based International Dialogue and Diplomacy Foundation jointly organized a February 2025 conference in Ankara to reset bilateral relations. The Indian Embassy in Turkey was an official partner in the event. Several Indian strategic experts and former diplomats attended the event, which effectively provided Turkey cover and reinforced a false image of the Turkish government’s sincerity.
Whether critical actors lull India’s leadership into complacency by design, idealism, or incompetence on Turkey’s threat remains a question for further investigation. Nevertheless, India needs to calibrate its policy to reality rather than rhetoric or wishful thinking. Turkey’s investment is often a barometer of worse terrorism to come. A decade ago, Turkey began investing heavily in Gaza, much to the detriment of stability in the region. Israel now understands that Hamas plans many terror attacks from Istanbul, not only from Doha and Tehran. India should recognize that the same pattern is afoot on the Kashmir issue. Terror cells may continue to sit in Rawalpindi, but their planners soon may be sitting in Istanbul and Ankara.
