Pakistani Air Force partners with Turkey’s notorious paramilitary group: Reports

The Pakistani Air Force’s policy think tank, the Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies (CASS), has become a partner of the Islamic Union Congress, organized by the Association of Justice Defenders Strategic Studies Center (ASSAM), a front organization run by private military contractor SADAT, which many believe is a de facto paramilitary force loyal to the Islamist president of Turkey.

SADAT is owned by retired general Adnan Tanrıverdi, who is also head of the ASSAM steering committee and former chief military aide to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, says Nordic Research and Monitor Network.

The Islamic Union Congress is a series of gatherings that started in 2017 and will continue until 2023.

The event is sponsored by municipalities run by the ruling party, government agencies and Turkish Airlines, read Nordic Research and Monitor Network website. 

The fifth congress, in which CASS is a partner, will be held in Istanbul in December 2021 and will focus on the “Principles and Procedures of Joint Foreign Policy for the Islamic Union (2021). The congress previously discussed several issues such as establishing a confederation of Islamic countries as well as a joint army and a constitution.

According to the proposed constitution, the main goal of the confederation, which comprises 61 countries, is “ensuring the Islamic world to be seen on the scene of history again as a supreme power with Istanbul, the capital of it.”