Türkiye is able to cooperate with China and desires to ship a delegation to go to Xinjiang, says Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusloglu.
(Dilara Senkaya / Reuters Archive)
The ebb in ties between Türkiye and China comes from Beijing’s “unease” over Ankara’s help for the Uighurs of Xinjiang, northwestern China, Türkiye’s high diplomat has mentioned.
Turkish-Chinese ties have suffered over Beijing being disturbed by Ankara’s “attitude toward Turkic Uighurs. They have extradition requests for people who are our citizens, who are settled in Türkiye, and we don’t grant any of them,” Foreign Minister Cavusoglu advised reporters at an end-of-year press briefing in Ankara on Thursday.
He added that on-line claims that Uighurs are being extradited to China are “a total lie”.
“Our defending the rights of the Turkic Uighurs in the international arena disturbs China. But this is a humanitarian issue,” he mentioned, citing a UN Human Rights Council report on Uighurs in China launched in September.
The report “reveals all (human rights) violations. We have to react to it,” he added.
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Prevented from visiting Xinjiang
Stressing that Türkiye desires to cooperate with China in a clear method, Cavusoglu mentioned: “Our ambassador hasn’t been (to Xinjiang) yet, they don’t allow him.”
Chinese authorities don’t permit the ambassador in Beijing to freely go to the area the place Uighurs reside however as an alternative need him to observe a “programme that they provide”, he mentioned.
“Why should we become a tool for China’s propaganda? They said that a humanitarian delegation from Türkiye could come and examine (the region). It’s been five years since (Chinese President) Xi (Jinping) proposed this,” he continued.
“Why have you been preventing this delegation from visiting for five years, why don’t you cooperate?”
“We want to cooperate, we don’t see this as a political issue. We are categorically not anti-Chinese. We have always said that we support the one-China policy,” Cavusoglu added, referring to the dispute over Taiwan.
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UN report
In September, the UN launched a report on alleged violations of the human rights of ethnic Uighurs and different Muslim minorities in China, concluding that the nation could have dedicated crimes towards humanity.
The report discovered that mass detentions in China’s Xinjiang area from 2017 to 2019 have been marked by credible documentation of torture, sexual violence, and compelled labour, in addition to compelled abortions and sterilisations.
The 48-page report concluded that “serious human rights violations” have been dedicated by the Chinese authorities towards the Uighurs and different Muslims beneath China’s insurance policies to combat terrorism and extremism.
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Source: AA
