The ebb in ties between Türkiye and China comes from Beijing’s “unease” over Ankara’s help for the Uyghurs of Xinjiang, northwestern China, stated Türkiye’s high diplomat on Thursday.
Turkish-Chinese ties have suffered over Beijing being disturbed by “our attitude on the Turkic Uyghurs. They have extradition requests for people who are our citizens, who live in Türkiye all the time, and we don’t grant any of them,” Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu advised reporters at an end-of-year press briefing within the capital Ankara.
Rebuffing claims that Türkiye Uyghurs are being extradited to China, Çavuşoğlu known as such claims “a total lie.”
“Our defending the rights of the Turkic Uyghurs in the international arena disturbs China. But this is a humanitarian issue,” he stated, citing a UN Human Rights Council report on Turkic Uyghurs in China launched in September.
The report “reveals all (human rights) violations. We have to react to it,” he added.
Stressing that Türkiye needs to cooperate with China in a clear method, Çavuşoğlu stated: “Our ambassador hasn’t been there (Xinjiang) yet, they don’t allow him.”
Chinese authorities don’t permit the ambassador in Beijing to freely go to the area the place Uyghur Turks stay however as a substitute need him to comply with a “program that they provide”
“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. Why have you been preventing this delegation from visiting for five years, why don’t you cooperate?” he requested.
“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,” Çavuşoğlu added, referring to the dispute over Taiwan.
In September the UN launched a report on alleged violations of the human rights of ethnic Uyghurs 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 labor, in addition to compelled abortions and sterilizations.
The 48-page report concluded that “serious human rights violations” have been dedicated by the Chinese authorities towards the Uyghurs and different Muslims beneath China’s insurance policies to battle terrorism and extremism.
