BANGKOK
Ankara expected its "Uyghur brothers" to live in peace and tranquility under a "single roof of China", Turkey's foreign minister said on Tuesday.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey would send its delegation of approximately 10 people from different institutions to China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region -- also referred to as East Turkestan -- upon China's invitation.
The delegation would thus see the situation in Xinjiang on-site, Cavusoglu added.
His remarks came after attending a trilateral meeting between Turkey and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a part of the 52nd ASEAN meeting of Foreign Ministers in Thailand.
During a visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to China early in July, Chinese President Xi Jinping asked Erdogan to send a delegation to the region, Cavusoglu said.
Later, on July 24, the Chinese embassy in Ankara officially conveyed this invitation to Turkey's Foreign Ministry, he said, adding that Erdogan had responded positively in principle to this invitation.
China’s Xinjiang region is home to around 10 million Uyghur. The Turkic Muslim group, which makes up around 45% of Xinjiang’s population, has long accused China’s authorities of cultural, religious and economic discrimination.
Up to one million people, or about 7% of the Muslim population in Xinjiang, have been incarcerated in an expanding network of "political re-education" camps, according to U.S. officials and UN experts.
In a report, last September, the Human Rights Watch accused Beijing of carrying out a "systematic campaign of human rights violations" against Uyghur Muslims in the region.
*Writing by Faruk Zorlu
