Turkish President Erdogan was just in China. Did he take the opportunity to criticise the treatment of the Muslim Uighurs, over a million of whom are incarcerated in re-education camps to change their allegiance from Islam to the glories of the Chinese Communist Party? Of course he didn't:
Uighur activists have criticised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for failing to speak out against China’s detention of hundreds of thousands of the predominantly Muslim Turkic minority in the western Xinjiang province during a visit to Beijing on Tuesday.
In an article published in China’s Global Daily newspaper ahead of Erdogan’s meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, Erdogan said that the two countries shared a “vision of the future”....
“Despite their geographical distance, Turkey and China have maintained close economic and cultural relations for centuries,” Erdogan wrote.
“Turkey is firmly committed to strengthening its cooperation with China in all areas.”
But Dolkun Isa, the head of the World Uighur Congress, a German-based advocacy organisation, told Middle East Eye that Erdogan had missed a “perfect opportunity” to raise awareness about China’s repressive policies towards the Uighurs while talking instead about the belt and road initiative.
Stability in Xinjiang is seen as crucial to the success of the project because of its key location along the trade routes running west.
Isa said that between one and three million Uighurs had been “subjected to political indoctrination, torture, killing and other serious human rights violations” in “21st century concentration camps”.
“The WUC and the Uighur diaspora are very saddened and disappointed by Erdogan's action as he always claimed to be a leader of the Muslim world, who stands up for the Muslim population all around the world, but he couldn't speak up for Uighur Muslims in East Turkestan,” he said, using a name used by Uighur separatists to refer to Xinjiang.
“Uighur and Turkish people share similar culture, history and language; hence compared to other countries, Turkey should be the first to raise concerns over China's treatment of Uighurs. But this was not the case."
Indeed according to Chinese media, Erdogan was full of praise for what's happening in Xinjiang:
President Erdogan of Turkey has backed Beijing’s de-radicalisation scheme for Muslim Uighur minorities, according to Chinese state media.
“Turkey firmly supports the One China policy, and it’s a fact that residents of all ethnicities in China’s Xinjiang are living happily amid China’s development and prosperity,” Mr Erdogan said, as reported by Xinhua, the official news agency.
If confirmed, Mr Erdogan’s comments would represent a stark reversal by the Turkish government, which has previously said that Beijing’s treatment of local Muslims in the far western Chinese region of Xinjiang was a “great embarrassment for humanity”.
Critics say that the deradicalisation scheme amounts to the internment of Chinese Muslims. However, during a state visit to China, Mr Erdogan was quoted as saying: “Turkey will not allow anyone to harm Turkey-China relations. Turkey firmly opposes extremism.”
So the Muslim world can't manage to raise any concern or any sympathy for the wretched Uighurs, their co-religionists, subject to the Orwellian nightmare of the camps.
Attacks on the "Zionist entity", meanwhile, are expected to continue.
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