Repatriation of Uyghurs from Turkey to China not on cards: Report

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INTERNATIONAL DESK: Turkey’s emergence as a safe haven for the Uyghurs who continue to suffer severe crackdown on the Chinese mainland has become disturbing for China as roughly 50,000 Uyghurs live in Turkey, forming the largest Uyghur diaspora outside Central Asia, a US-based think tank, GlobalSecurity.org said citing several media reports.

Due to Turkey’s hospitability for Uyghurs, China has repeatedly made extradition requests for Uyghurs back to China, the US-based think tank quoted Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as saying at a year-end press briefing in Ankara on December 29.

He said, “They have extradition requests for people who are our citizens, who live in Turkey all the time. Therefore, we don’t grant any such requests,” as the Uyghurs have Turkish citizenship.

Notably, the Turks share ethnic, religious and linguistic connections with Uyghurs.

The Uyghurs, an ethnic minority in China’s Xinjiang province, are persecuted and exposed to human rights violations.

According to the US-based think tank, Global security.org, the Turkish government has been constantly accused of sending Uyghur dissidents back to China via Xinjiang’s neighbouring third nations, which would make it simpler for Beijing to win the extradition and possibly send them to “re-education” camps or prisons. Refuting all such allegations, Cavusoglu said reports in past years that Turkey has been sending Uyghurs back to China were “total lies.”

Cavusoglu cited a report on Uyghurs in Xinjiang written by Michelle Bachelet, a former UN human rights chief, and published in late August 2022. In it, Bachelet claimed that serious human rights violations had occurred as a result of counter-extremism tactics and that these violations “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”

“We have to react to it,” he said about the rights violations detailed in the report, according to GlobalSecurity.org.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has revealed that China has refused to allow the Turkish ambassador to visit the Uyghur region in the north-western Xinjiang province, admitting it has strained ties between the two nations, reported MEMO (Middle East Monitor).

In March 2021, Turkey’s ruling AKP government in the Turkish Grand National Assembly allegedly suppressed a motion that would have designated as genocide, China’s ongoing atrocities against the Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic people in East Turkistan. (ANI)