Turkey turns blind eye to plight of Uyghurs while forging close ties with China

Despite being home to the largest Uyghur diaspora in the world, Turkey seems to have turned a blind eye to the plight of the community after Ankara developed economic ties with Beijing.

It is surprising to note that the so-called ‘Defenders of Islam’ do not utter a single word when it comes to persecution of Uyghur Muslims who have been arbitrarily incarcerated in a network of prison camps in China, International Forum for Rights and Security informed and added that this could be an outcome of Turkey’s increased economical dependency on China. Earlier in March, Turkey had voted down to call Beijing’s crackdown on Uyghurs ‘genocide’.

Ankara and Beijing had also signed an Extradition Treaty in 2017 leading to fears that it could be used to target Uyghurs living in Turkey.

The Treaty is still awaiting ratification by the Turkish Parliament, International Forum for Rights and Security said.

Instead of raising their voice against the oppression of Uyghurs, Ankara is assisting the Chinese Communist Party by detaining Uyghurs in their countries and handing them over to China.

For a number of years, Turkey has been a destination of relief for thousands of Uyghurs fleeing persecution in China. The Islamic country is home to a sizeable Uyghur diaspora and around 50,000 Uyghurs are currently living in Turkey.

Meanwhile, Beijing has also imposed a “population optimization strategy” in order to shrink the population of the Uyghur community in the country’s southern Xinjiang, said the report based on official Chinese documents and academic debate.

As a part of this strategy, China is immigrating the people of the Han Chinese community in Uyghur populated regions while imposing strict birth controls on the Uyghurs, Radio Free Asia reported citing a new report by German researcher Adrian Zenz.