{"id":1214,"date":"2019-02-11T19:05:57","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T19:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/?p=1214"},"modified":"2019-02-11T19:05:57","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T19:05:57","slug":"after-years-of-silence-turkey-rebukes-china-for-mass-detention-of-uyghurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/?p=1214","title":{"rendered":"After years of silence, Turkey rebukes China for mass detention of Uyghurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>People rally last week to urge the State Department to fight for the freedom of the Uyghur population held in Chinese detention centers. (Timothy A. Clary\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

By Gerry Shih February 10 at 12:59 PM<\/p>\n

BEIJING \u2014 The Turkish government has called on China to close its indoctrination centers holding ethnic Uyghurs, marking a rare instance of a major Muslim country joining a mounting international chorus condemning the detention of up to 1 million Muslims in the far western region of Xinjiang.
\nThe statement marks a turnaround for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s ruling party, which has been notably silent about China\u2019s treatment of Uyghurs despite growing inter\u00adnational media coverage and pressure from Turkish opposition parties since 2017.<\/p>\n

In a statement Saturday, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said the reintroduction of internment camps and the systematic assimilation of Uyghur Turks represent \u201ca great shame for humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is no longer a secret that more than 1 million Uyghur Turks incurring arbitrary arrests are subjected to torture and political brainwashing,\u201d Aksoy said.<\/p>\n

The ministry said it \u201clearned with deep sorrow\u201d of the death of renowned Uyghur folk poet Abdu\u00adrehim Heyit, who was in Chinese custody. It added it would \u201ccommemorate Heyit and those who lost their lives defending Turkish and Muslim identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

China\u2019s embassy in Ankara responded to the statement with fury, saying its internment program was designed to curb extremism and terrorism, threats that Turkey shares with China. It rejected Turkey\u2019s remarks as \u201ccompletely against the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

In what could prove an embarrassment for the Turkish government, Chinese state media posted video footage online Sunday that purportedly shows Heyit alive.<\/p>\n

Uyghur activists applauded Turkey for speaking out, but many question why it is only now coming to their defense. Tahir Imin, a Washington-based activist, said he and others provided documentation of China\u2019s incarceration of Uyghurs to the Turkish government for more than a year without response.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope the Turkish government will continue its support of the Uyghurs\u2019 basic human rights, as the West has been doing, and try to do more,\u201d Imin said.<\/p>\n

The Turkish statement came weeks before the country heads to polls in nationwide local elections.<\/p>\n

Erdogan has styled himself as a leader of the Muslim world and a defender of the world\u2019s Turkic peoples. In 2009, he described China\u2019s crackdown on Uyghurs in the wake of ethnic riots in Xinjiang as a \u201cgenocide,\u201d infuriating Beijing.<\/p>\n

But Turkey\u2019s ties with China warmed significantly after 2016, when Erdogan faced a failed coup and a chill in relations with the West. The following year, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a visit to Beijing that Turkey would help China seize Uyghur extremists, alarming Uyghur activists and Turkish nationalists who view the ethnic minority as their Turkic kin.<\/p>\n

Tahir Hamut, a Uyghur film producer and poet in exile in Washington, said he heard from friends Saturday that Heyit was alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Uyghur people had always hoped Turkey would adopt this posture, and finally it has,\u201d Hamut said. \u201cBut for the Turkish government to make statements without the relevant proof about Heyit is surprising. China will use this to refute Turkey\u2019s criticism. That\u2019s unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/after-years-of-silence-turkey-rebukes-china-for-mass-detention-of-muslim-uighurs\/2019\/02\/10\/011c7dd6-2d44-11e9-ac6c-14eea99d5e24_story.html?fbclid=IwAR2aUuc3F2wjVbd8uryBQ2rVy7-DDrteqEaODZs6ZMgxlnK0PwT-CDBCeyQ&noredirect=on&utm_term=.c16d3a341da6<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People rally last week to urge the State Department to fight for the freedom of the Uyghur population held in Chinese detention centers. (Timothy A. Clary\/AFP\/Getty Images) By Gerry Shih February 10 at 12:59 PM BEIJING \u2014 The Turkish government has called on China to close its indoctrination centers holding ethnic Uyghurs, marking a rare […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chinas-uyghur-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1216,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions\/1216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}