Turkey Back Pak in War vs India: OPED : May 11, 2025
China and Turkey supported Islamabad with more than just arms during the “low-intensity” confrontation between India and Pakistan. Beijing and Ankara also joined Pakistan’s side in the information war, giving the Pakistan Army’s disinformation effort international exposure.
In both China and Turkey, state-run media organizations like Global Times, Xinhua News Agency, and TRT World openly served as the Pakistan Army’s megaphone, promoting their stories while endangering their credibility and reputation.
Naturally,the Beijing-based Global Times and the Xinhua News Agency,which are the state-run propaganda outlets for the Chinese Communist Party,were never very credible in the first place. Similarly,during a time when press freedom in Turkey has suffered greatly,the Ankara-based TRT World has frequently worked on propaganda for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s recently discovered imperialistic plans.
However,even by their own low standards, accepting the Pakistani Army’s fraudulent statements without any kind of verification is a new low.
Since Pakistan lacks a traditional media outlet that can reach beyond its boundaries, Islamabad benefits greatly from the state-run media outlets in China and Turkey,which give the Pakistan Army’s unsupported and frequently ludicrous claims a forum.
The Information Warfare Age :
We live in an information-driven age. In order to control perception, modern conflicts are waged not only on the battlefield with bullets but also on digital screens.
Local troops’ morale can be raised by a strategic win on the battlefield. But the morale increase will only be a hyper-local event until this information is broadcast to millions of digital displays,and it won’t affect the general psychopathology of a wartime society.
However,even in the face of depressing war losses,public morale can be raised by deceit,image manipulation,and false narratives.
“Information warfare is an operation conducted in order to gain an information advantage over the opponent,” according to a NATO media kit.
“It entails managing one’s own information space, safeguarding access to one’s own information, and obtaining and utilizing the information of the adversary, destroying their information systems, and interfering with the flow of information.”
The importance of information warfare in the twenty-first century has been brought to light by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The number of Russian servicemen killed and their equipment destroyed is disclosed daily by the Ukrainian government. According to Ukraine’s intelligence, more than 1200 Russian soldiers are being killed every day. This will result in the deaths of approximately 432,000 Russian soldiers in a year and 36,000 soldiers in a month.
That means that during this conflict, Ukraine must have killed more than 1.3 million Russian soldiers. There is obviously a lot of exaggeration in these estimates, and even Ukraine’s Western backers dispute them, providing a more realistic estimate of Russian casualties.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has not disclosed any data regarding its own losses. While inflating the opposing side’s losses, Russia and Ukraine are attempting to demonstrate strength and a military edge.
International media outlets, however, are generally not accepting these assertions at face value.
Join Pakistan’s information war with China and Turkey.
Conversely, the state-run media in China and Turkey have mostly taken the Pakistani Army’s outrageous statements at face value, even in the absence of supporting data.
In this regard, Beijing and Ankara are serving as a megaphone for the Pakistani military, giving it a stage on which to advertise its fabrications and lies to a global audience.
Consider the state-owned Global Times in China. Without providing any supporting proof, Global Times reported on May 7 that Pakistan had shot down three Indian fighter jets.
These allegations were denied by the Indian Embassy in China, which also advised Global Times to check its sources before spreading false information.
In an effort to mislead the public,a number of pro-Pakistan accounts are disseminating unfounded statements in relation to #OperationSindoor. A major breach in accountability and journalistic ethics occurs when media outlets disseminate such information without confirming the sources,the statement continued.
Global Times,however,was not greatly impacted by this counsel.
The Global Times once more gave the Pakistani military a forum to spread its misinformation campaign on May 10.
According to Pakistani state-run PTV News,India’s S-400 system near Adampur was destroyed by the JF-17 Thunder’s hypersonic missiles. It further stated that the value of the S-400 air defense system is roughly $1.5 billion.
The Global Times wrote on social networking site X, “The Xinhua News Agency also reported Pakistan JF-17 Thunder jet destroyed India’s S-400 air defense system in India’s Punjab, citing military.”
Furthermore,the Indian Army had already mocked the assertion in its press conference,which the Global Times neglected to mention.
The Global Times stated that “the Indian side has not yet responded to the report.”
Nevertheless,the Global Times did not revise their coverage even after the Indian Army explicitly denied these allegations.
On social media, Pakistan disseminated fake information, saying that it had attacked the S-400 air defense systems at the BrahMos base, Adampur, Suratgarh, and Sirsa Air Force Stations, among other locations. “India strongly denies these false narratives,” Col. Sofiya Qureshi, a spokesman for the Indian Army, stated.
As you can see, Pakistani assertions of their actions are still mostly based on propaganda, false information, and lies. Furthermore, the Pakistani State Agencies are pushing this; their assertions that they have attacked and destroyed several military locations across the nation are wholly untrue.According to Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri,the allegations that the air force stations in Sirsa,Suratgarh,were destroyed are untrue.
In order to counter Pakistan’s untrue allegations, India also displayed time-stamped photos.
Naturally,Chinese media has a stake in spreading claims that the Chinese-origin JF-17 took down the world’s most sophisticated air defense system,the S-400,or that the Chinese-origin J-10C shot down the Rafales.
State-run Chinese aircraft industries actively profit from such unverified statements in state-run Chinese media. Following these rumors,shares of the J-17 and J-10C fighter aircraft maker,Avic Chengdu Aircraft Co Ltd,increased by more than 36% in two sessions of Shenzhen trade.
The Turkish state-run media channel TRT World also extensively featured the same unverified allegations regarding the downing of Rafale jets.
Turkey is aggressively pursuing the Middle Eastern market with its underdeveloped TF-Kaan, a domestic fifth-generation fighter jet. The UAE has expressed interest in TF Kaan and has already placed an order for 80 Rafale jets at a cost of US$17.2 billion.
Saudi Arabia has also shown a strong desire to participate in the TF Kaan development program.
The Turkish state media’s eagerness to declare that Pakistan has shot down Indian Rafale fighter jets is easy to understand. In the rich Middle Eastern aerospace sector,Turkey stands to gain directly from any harm done to Rafale’s reputation.
This is not to say that India couldn’t lose a Rafale fighter plane in a battle in the air. Examples of much more competent aircraft losing to less capable ones abound throughout aviation history.
However,there is still insufficient publicly available information to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Pakistan fired down a Rafale after India lost one.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asserted during a speech in the Pakistani assembly that 75–80 Indian aircraft participated in Operation Sindoor.
If this report is true, it is impossible to completely rule out an accident or friendly fire due to the huge number of Indian fighter jets in the air during those critical 25 minutes of operation. Given that the majority of the attacks were standoffs,a shoot-down seems implausible.
Some exaggerated accusations were made by Chinese,Turkish,Pakistani,and even Indian media. The potential approach of the Indian media is explained in an analysis by EurAsian Times.
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