{"id":824934,"date":"2026-05-20T08:52:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T05:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=824934"},"modified":"2026-05-20T08:59:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T05:59:50","slug":"turkeys-new-missiles-target-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2026\/05\/20\/turkeys-new-missiles-target-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey\u2019s new missiles target India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Letter to Editor : Turkey\u2019s new missiles target India, presage a new Kashmir push” by Michael Rubin<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Letter to Editor Sunday Guardian Ms Joyeeta Basu 
Sundayguardianlive
India <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Ms Joyeeta Basu: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, a matter of basic accuracy and respect. The official name of the country is T\u00fcrkiye, not \u201cTurkey.\u201d The Government of the Republic of T\u00fcrkiye formally requested that this name be used in international discourse and institutions. When individuals presenting themselves as analysts of Middle Eastern affairs cannot even employ the correct name of a NATO ally, it raises legitimate questions about the depth of their expertise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article in question “Turkey\u2019s new missiles target India, presage a new Kashmir push” by Michael Rubin is not a serious strategic assessment. It is another example of the ongoing smear campaigns across the world against T\u00fcrkiye, part of a broader global campaign of delegitimization directed against the Turkish state and nation. This issue has become another weapon in the international campaign to de-legitimize the Turkish state and the Turkish people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To suggest that T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s missile development is somehow uniquely directed at India is speculative, inflammatory, and strategically unserious. Major regional and global powers continuously develop advanced missile systems as part of deterrence doctrine, technological modernization, and national defense planning. India itself maintains sophisticated missile and nuclear capabilities, as do numerous other states across Eurasia. Yet when T\u00fcrkiye advances its own defense industry, it is immediately framed through paranoia and ideological hostility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u00fcrkiye has every sovereign right to strengthen its defense capabilities in an increasingly unstable geopolitical environment marked by war in Eastern Europe, instability in the Middle East, terrorism, maritime disputes, and evolving missile threats. Portraying T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s technological progress as evidence of an impending anti-India conspiracy reflects political bias rather than objective analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article further descends into ideological caricature by attempting to portray President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and modern T\u00fcrkiye through reductive Islamist stereotypes divorced from geopolitical reality. T\u00fcrkiye remains a constitutional republic, a member of NATO, a G20 economy, and a critical strategic actor balancing relations across Europe, Asia, the Caucasus, the Balkans, and the Middle East. It is, in fact, A NATO Ally Against Authoritarian Threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accusations regarding Hamas, Syria, Kashmir, and so-called \u201cneo-Ottomanism\u201d are presented without balance, nuance, or acknowledgment of T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s actual security concerns. T\u00fcrkiye has suffered enormously from terrorism, instability on its borders, refugee crises, and regional wars. It has fought ISIS directly, hosted millions of refugees, and acted as a mediator in multiple international conflicts. Yet critics selectively erase these realities because they do not fit the predetermined narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attempt to equate T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s diplomatic concern regarding Kashmiri Muslims with support for terrorism is especially irresponsible. Nations routinely express views on international disputes and humanitarian issues without endorsing violence. T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s statements on Kashmir, like those of many countries regarding global disputes, reflect diplomatic and humanitarian concerns, not calls for extremism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More troubling is the broader pattern behind such rhetoric. Increasingly, certain commentators seek to frame every independent Turkish foreign policy decision as evidence of extremism simply because T\u00fcrkiye refuses to act as a subordinate regional actor. Whether the issue is the Eastern Mediterranean, Libya, Syria, the Caucasus, Palestine, or defense modernization, the same narrative machinery activates: demonize T\u00fcrkiye, question its legitimacy, and isolate it internationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not objective analysis. It is another smear campaign to delegitimize T\u00fcrkiye a nation that has emerged as an independent regional power with strategic autonomy, advanced defense capabilities, and growing diplomatic influence across multiple continents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ibrahim Kurtulus
Community Activist <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Turkey\u2019s new missiles target India, presage a new Kashmir push<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkey\u2019s new missiles target India, presage a new Kashmir push<\/a><\/blockquote>