By Ateet Sharma
New Delhi, Feb 20 (IANS): After a Disinfo Lab report highlighted that the toolkit dropped accidentally by Greta Thunberg had a foreign expert - Pieter Friedrich - as resource point waging a propaganda war against India in collusion with Pakistan's notorious spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), investigation by a Greek media outlet has revealed that Turkey is an "integral part" of this campaign, aiding Pakistan to spread unrest in India.
The Disinfo Lab investigation titled 'The Unending War: From Proxy War to Info-War' released earlier this week has exposed the elaborate design which involved a slew of shady companies in the United States, fake foreign experts and even ghost entities to dent India's peaceful, non-violent image.
It mentioned in detail about the linkages of the mastermind waging an info-war/psy-war against India to major terror plot hatched against India in the 1990s in collusion with ISI and how, while taking the cover of Khalistan, the network "still around and connected" works for Pakistani interests.
Following the leads from the Disinfo Lab report, an investigation done by a leading Greek news website has decoded the Ankara connection to the entire propaganda being peddled against India, especially during the ongoing farmers protest.
"One of the most prominent names revealed in the report and has been promoting Pieter Friedrich's propaganda as an 'amplifier', is Constantinople (Istanbul) based propagandist Ali Keskin. Sources suggest that he is the central figure responsible for coordination between the Pakistani ISI and the Turkish intelligence agency (MIT) on information warfare," reported Greek City Times.
The report said that Turkey has been an integral part of this warfare and has been aiding Pakistan in its disinformation campaign against India.
Scanning Keskin's Twitter handle, the Greek publication said that the war-mongering tweets made by him against India, Greece, France, UAE and Israel were mostly spread by Pakistani handles.
"Several investigations by news organisations have revealed that disgruntled with the emerging India-UAE ties, Ali Keskin, with the help of his amplifiers in Pakistan, began a hashtag #BoycottUAE, which became a top trending hashtag within a couple of minutes. This was thanks to the magnification by radical Pakistanis," the report said.
Keskin, the investigation further revealed, has, along with another Turkish journalist Baba Umar "who is believed to be working for the ISI" been assigned to hit countries targeted by Turkey, especially India.
The duo has been regularly coordinating with the Pakistani propagandists and promoting each-other's content. Fredrich too has been producing online content with Umar, attacking India by taking a pro-Pakistani line on Kashmir.
"What else does one need as a proof of Khalistani's aligning with ISI sponsored proxies? The connection between Baba Umar and Pieter Friedrich suggests that Pakistan has started to act as a converging point to bring together all anti-India forces, and Turkey is the new entrant in this group," an expert on Caucasian affairs told the Greek media outlet.
The Disinfo Lab report had highlighted Islamabad's K-2 (Kashmir-Khalistan) plan and the elaborate design and planning that is underway since 2007 driven by singular motive – to target India's interest in four major ways:
- Targeting idea of India – non-violence & Mahatma Gandhi – replacing it with an alternate image of 'fascist India'
- Targeting India's territorial integrity – working towards K-2 design
- Targeting India's interests abroad by working against Indian origin American politicians
- Whitewashing Pakistan's sins – clean chit to Pakistan (ISI) in Kabul Gurudwara Bombings & questioning Pulwama attack
The report by Greek City Times also listed several other propagandists like California-based Zahra Billoo - a strong supporter of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Caliphate project - working as foot soldiers in the information war launched by Turkey-Pakistan.
Billoo, the report said, has tried to malign US politician Tulsi Gabbard's image in the past, and is currently busy "amplifying the anti-India messages on farmers' protest in India". Her tweets are liked by Friedrich, thus clearly establishing the anti-India nexus.
It is however not for the first time that the Turkey-Pakistan connection to spread terror in India, especially Kashmir, has been exposed.
Kurdish news agency ANF had reported a few months ago that Turkey has started preparing its gangs in Syria to send them to Kashmir to fight for Pakistan against India. It was reported that Ankara's bid to extend its influence to Muslims in South Asia comes as part of Erdogan's ongoing steps to challenge Saudi Arabia's dominance of the Islamic world.