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As Turkey, and to some extent Iran, came under heavy criticism in India for siding with Pakistan during Operation Sindoor one needs to understand the long history of relationship among these countries. The origin of cordiality can be traced back to August 14, 1947, that is the day a new entity came into being in the sub-continent.
Iran was the first country in the world to recognize Pakistan followed by Turkey. That was the time when Iran was ruled by anti-Islamist Westernized monarch and Turkey was under the rule of ultra-secular Kemalist regime.
Here it should be recalled that these two countries were the major suppliers of arms and ammunition to Pakistan during 1965 and 1971 wars with India. Shia-dominated Iran also supplied cheap oil to Pakistan during these wars and accused New Delhi of being the aggressor.
Similarly, Sunni-dominated Turkey stood behind Pakistan on the issues of Kashmir and liberation war in the then East Pakistan. It recognized the new country Bangladesh much later, that is on the eve of the Organization of Islamic Conference summit in Lahore in February 1974.
Though there is no dearth of public opinion makers in Pakistan and Turkey who go back to the 1920 Khilafat Movement to explain the bond between the people of the North-Western part of the sub-continent (the region now forms Pakistan) with the Ottomans. What they fail to appreciate is that not its founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, but Mahatma Gandhi, Ali Brothers and others who played a key role in the Khilafat Movement, which was spread to other parts of undivided India too.
Contrary to this Jinnah was the supporter of Kamal Ata Turk, who finally abolished the Ottoman Khilafat. Later General Pervez Musharraf, who spent his early life in Turkey, adopted the Kemalist approach.
Notwithstanding the stand of Turkey and Iran on crucial issue of Kashmir, India maintained a relationship with these two countries. Not to speak of other rulers of Ankara, even the present President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited India in the summer of 2017. The Shah of Iran too made several trips to New Delhi. The latter, in particular, tilted towards India when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto invited Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, for the OIC Summit in Lahore. This was not liked by Shah who boycotted it and later the same year made a journey to India.
Bhutto took this stand in spite of the fact that his second wife Nusrat, Benazir’s mother, was a Shia from Isfahan in Iran. No space for ‘sasural’ (in-laws) in international diplomacy.
These three countries along with Iraq and the United Kingdom were the members of CENTO (Central Treaty Organization). It came into existence in 1955 but was dissolved in March 1979 a few days after Iran withdrew from it following the Islamic Revolution on February 11, 1979. It was a military alliance against the then Soviet Union. As CENTO was formed not against New Delhi it did not take side in 1965 and 1971 wars between India and Pakistan. But Turkey and Iran militarily, diplomatically and materially backed Pakistan.
The support for Pakistan by Turkey and Iran precedes the coming to power of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Islamic Revolution. In fact, post-Revolution Tehran has adopted a more balanced approach and has a good relationship with India too. In spite of this, a diplomatic row erupted recently after a strategic affairs expert of India used abusive language for Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, who, as per plan, visited New Delhi during the high time of Operation Sindoor, obviously to broker peace.
Though it is China which fully backed Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, and other conflicts in the past, the name of another Shia dominated country, Azerbaijan, got relatively little attention in India. A close ally of Turkey, Azerbaijan fully backed Pakistan. The irony is that like India, Azerbaijan has cordial ties with Israel, which imports its oil—and that too piped through Turkey.
Till a few months back the relationship between the two Shia countries, Iran and Azerbaijan, was at its lowest ebb. Tehran always feared that Israel would use Azerbaijan territory to attack it. The Zionist state is the largest supplier of arms to Azerbaijan, which came into being after the disintegration of the then Soviet Union in 1991.
The relationship took an ugly turn in January 2023 when an Iranian gunman shot dead an Azerbaijanian diplomat in Tehran and injured two others. The two countries snapped ties only to restore a year later.
However, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, an Iranian Azeri, made a trip to Baku in the last week of April 2025. This was an attempt by cornered Iran to wean Azerbaijan away from Israel.
More than China, Turkey, and Iran, it was the decision of Azerbaijan to back Pakistan during Operation Sindoor which came as a surprise to many global watchers.
It could have remained neutral as the Azerbaijan-India relationship has of late been improving. As number of Indian tourists to Azerbaijan is increasing, there was a proposal to introduce an air link between Baku and Ahmedabad from July 4. Till now there are direct flights from Baku to Mumbai and Delhi
This post was last modified on May 22, 2025 11:00 pm