Turkey ‘follows with concern’ Uyghurs' plight in China

By Ismihan Ozguven

ADANA, Turkey

Turkey is following Chinese authorities’ approaches towards the Uyghur Turks with concern, said the spokesman for ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party on Monday.

“Once again, we are expressing that our sensitivity towards the Uyghur Turks is alive, we follow this issue with concern and call on the world to follow this issue closely too,” Omer Celik said at a meeting of the party.

Celik stressed that Turkey defends the territorial integrity of China and attaches importance to China's security.

However, he added: “We would like to express that we are not satisfied with the explanations on the Uyghur Turks.”

“It is a well-known fact that Chinese men were placed in Uyghur Turks’ homes, so many people were kept in concentration camps, many of them were martyred and many of them remain missing,” Celik added.

“We have the capacity and experience to understand the sensitivity of the matter of fighting terrorism. However, human rights violations should not be covered under the garb of combating terrorism,” Celik went on to say.

China’s Xinjiang region is home to around 13 million Uyghurs. The Turkic Muslim group, which makes up around 45 percent of Xinjiang’s population, has long accused China’s authorities of cultural, religious and economic discrimination.

Up to 1 million people, or about 7 percent 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, Human Rights Watch accused the Chinese government of a “systematic campaign of human rights violations” against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.