4 min readNew DelhiFeb 26, 2022 12:08 AM IST
First published on: Feb 26, 2022 at 12:08 AM IST
RSS affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch has expressed its reservations about the Tata Group appointing former Turkish Airlines chairman Ilker Ayci as Air India’s Managing Director and CEO.
“The Aviation Industry cannot be equated with a chips manufacturer. This is a matter of National Security. We must be very careful. His links with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the current President of Turkey, is a matter of concern and must be thoroughly checked before arriving at a decision,” SJM convenor Ashwini Mahajan told the Indian Express.
Mahajan added that the “controversial” appointment was already being talked about everywhere. “The good thing is the government is already seized of the matter and is doing a thorough scrutiny. I am not saying the Tatas have done this deliberately. It is one of those things that get overlooked,” he said even as he underlined the friendship between Erdogan’s Turkey and Pakistan.
He, however, clarified that the SJM had not made representation in this regard to the government.
The Tata Group appointed Ilker Ayci as Air India’s MD and CEO earlier this month to be effective on or before April 1. Appointment of foreign CEOs require clearance from the government.
Ilker Ayci was chairman of Turkish Airlines since 2015, and his resignation from the post was announced by the airline on January 27 this year — the same day Tatas were handed over Air India by the Centre.
During his professional career, Ayci has been an advisor to the then Mayor of Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in the Metropolitan Municipality of Istanbul, where he took part in a number of development projects in Turkey’s largest city. Erdoğan is currently the President of Turkey.
Under Erdogan, Turkey has been seen to turn more Islamic and grown closer to Pakistan. Erdogan has in the past couple of years repeatedly raised the issue of Kashmir in his address to the UN General Assembly. He had also raised the Kashmir issue during his visits to Pakistan.
During his visit to Pakistan in February, 2020, Erdogan while addressing a joint session of Pakistan Parliament expressed concern over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and compared the “struggle” of the Kashmiri people with his country’s fight against foreign domination during World War I.
Following this, the government had summoned Turkey’s then Ambassador Sakir Özkan Torunlar and issued a strong demarche. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had then said Erdogan’s remarks reflected “neither an understanding of history nor of the conduct of diplomacy” and would have “strong implications” on India’s ties with Turkey.
In September last year, Erdogan in his address to the General Debate, said, “We maintain our stance in favour of solving the ongoing problem in Kashmir for 74 years, through dialogue between the parties and within the framework of relevant United Nations resolutions.”
In 2020 also, Erdogan in his pre-recorded video statement to the General Debate had made a reference to Jammu and Kashmir.
India at that time termed it as “completely unacceptable”, saying Turkey should learn to respect the sovereignty of other nations and reflect on its own policies more deeply.
“The good thing is the government is already seized of the matter and is doing a thorough scrutiny. I am not saying the Tatas have done this deliberately. It is one of those things that get overlooked,” he said even as he underlined the friendship between Erdogan’s Turkey and Pakistan. File 
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