Thankfully you haven't put Turkey into the equation!!!!! I hope it remains that way.....
Hon Hakikat,
Pak Turkish cultural & historical roots run very deep. Our language Urdu is itself a Turkish word and has many words borrowed from the Turkish language; for example, we call our oven ‘Tandur’ not ‘Tanur’ as in Farsi.
For the benefit of the younger members who may be not aware of the modern history, permit me to briefly describe the close relationship between Turkish people and Muslims of the sub- continent that has existed for more than the last 150 years.
Import of the Wahhabi /Salafi creed is very recent, owing its rise to the influence of the bigot Zia and the CIA who exploited Islam merely to recruit fighters against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Unlike the Arab Middle East, majority of the Muslims of Pakistan & India belong to the Hanafi School, which is also the predominant faith of Turkish Muslims and after the end of the Mughal state, vast majority of the subcontinent Muslims adopted the Ottoman Caliph as their spiritual leader. To the best my knowledge, Ottoman Sultan was named in the Friday Khutba in many subcontinent mosques. Also contrary to the Arab Muslims who sided with the British and fought against the Ottomans, subcontinent Muslims remained supporters of the Turkish cause during WW1.
The support was not only verbal & political but also material. Following the Ottoman Turkey’s defeat and armistice of 1918; in addition to the Khilafat movement leaders Maulana Muhammad Ali, Shaukat Ali, Abul Kalam Azad, and Shibli Numani, All India Muslim League passed a resolution condemning the outrageous conduct of Sharif Hussein. Later, Muslim League under the presidency of HH Agha Khan and Ameer Ali (Head of London branch) made appeals to British Gov’t to save Turkey from disintegration. Even when the Turkish Grand National Assembly made a decision to abolish Caliphate disappointed the subcontinent Muslim masses; Allama Muhammad Iqbal considered it 'Ijtehad' and argued that according to the spirit of Islam, Caliphate can be vested in a body of persons or an elected Assembly.
All India Muslim League sent a medical commission under the supervision of Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari to assist the Turkish Red Crescent as early as during the Balkan Wars (1912 -1913). In December 1938, during his presidential address in the 27th session of All India Muslim League at Patna, Muhammad Ali Jinnah paid his heartiest homage to the charismatic leader of Turkey in these words, 'Another great figure; a world figure, who passed away is Mustafa Kamal Ataturk. His death has come as the great blow to the Muslim world. He was the foremost figure in the Muslim East'.
Khilafat Committee established three funds to support Turkey. The Khilafat Fund was utilised for financing the Khilafat movement in the British India. Smyrna Fund & the Angora Fund were earmarked to support the Turkish Nationalists. A total of £125,000 (roughly equal to £1.5-million at 2017 value) were collected in the two Turkish funds. This money was utilised to set up Türkiye İş Bankası or simply İşbank which is the Turkey’s largest bank today.
I would like to make it clear that the summary of historical events noted above is not meant in any way to remind anyone what the subcontinent Muslims have done for the Turkish people but it is merely to highlight the ‘Love and high regard ‘ that at least people of my generation have for their Turkish brethren.
Perish the thought; I would never dare of considering that Pak -Turkey friendship is based on ‘Realpolitik’ considerations.
