Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan concluded a visit to occupied East Turkestan on Thursday, declaring the region a “Turkish-Islamic” region, but stopped short of condemning the ongoing genocide by China’s colonial government against the region’s indigenous Uighur people.
Fidan was the first Turkish official to visit East Turkestan, once a sovereign state before it was occupied by Communist China by the genocidal Mao Zedong in 1949, since 2012, the year before current dictator Xi Jinping came to power in China. In 2017, Xi dramatically escalated existing state persecution of Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other peoples in East Turkestan, building a vast system of concentration camps and imposing a policy of “severing bloodlines, severing roots, severing ties, severing origins” to eradicate local culture.
Turkey’s Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has previously been a vocal supporter of the Uighur cause and has described China as “GenocideTurkey adopted an “anti-regime” policy towards the Uighurs as early as 2009. But after Turkey joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative in 2015, which led to a significant increase in bilateral trade, Erdogan silenced criticism and implemented policies to oppress the Uighur minority in his own country.
Uighurs in Istanbul and Washington DC protested this week, calling Fidan’s visit to China a “betrayal of our people” and an endorsement of genocide.
Flashback: Pro-Uighur group chants ‘terrorist China’, ‘Nazi China’ in front of White House
Türkiye’s state-run news agency Anadolu Agency said: report Fidan said that in meetings with Chinese officials from both Beijing and East Turkestan (which the Communist Party calls by its colonial-era Han name “Xinjiang”), they discussed “the situation of the Uighur Turks,” among other issues.
“Fidan’s discussions on the situation regarding the Uighur Turks sincerely and clearly conveyed Turkey’s views on this issue to Beijing and the Chinese authorities in Xinjiang,” Anadolu Agency claimed.
The news agency quoted Fidan as telling his Chinese hosts that Turkey wants the Uighurs “to live in prosperity and peace, like all other communities in China,” and that “everyone is well aware of the sensitivities of Turkey and the Islamic world regarding the protection of the cultural rights of the Uighur Turks and the preservation of their values.” Translated Fidan quoted Turkish government officials as urging China to allow the Uighurs to “live according to their own values” without repression.
KASHGAR, CHINA – JUNE 28: A Uighur man sits outside his home and holds his grandson as he waits for authorities to develop an area in the old city of Kashgar in China’s western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region on June 28. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
Fidan reportedly stressed that the East Turkestan city of Kashgar and the ancient Uighur city of Urumqi that he visited are “Turkish-Islamic” cities, not Chinese.
“These two cities are ancient Turkish and Islamic cities that have made significant contributions to China’s cultural heritage,” Fidan said. SaidAccording to a translation by Radio Free Asia (RFA), the statue “serves as a bridge between China and the Turkish and Islamic world, symbolizing the two countries’ historic friendship and neighborly love.”
While this declaration is a statement of fact, it is notable because the Xi administration has sought to deny East Turkestan’s Turkic heritage. For example, in 2019, the Chinese Communist Party released a “white paper” claiming that the Uighurs are ethnically Chinese, closer to China’s Han majority, and not Turkic.
According to a white paper released by the government, [Communist Party] “The Uighurs emerged from a long process of migration and ethnic integration. They are not the descendants of Turks,” the State Council Information Office wrote in a Chinese propaganda paper in March. Global Times It was announced that year.
“The Uighurs are part of the Chinese people and are not of Turkish descent, much less have any connection to the Turks,” Urumqi mayor Yashen Siddique was quoted as saying at the time.
Fidan on Wednesday shared photos of his visit to East Turkestan on social media, celebrating his success in visiting Urumqi and Kashgar, which he said was a long-held wish of his.
“Over the years, I have had the opportunity to visit many historical cities that contributed to the establishment of Turkish-Islamic civilization,” the foreign minister wrote on Twitter. “Urumqi and Kashgar have always remained a sad memory in my heart. Finally, thanks to my connections in China, I was able to visit these two ancient cities.”
Unfortunately, the teachings of Islam in Turkey have been consistently ignored from the 1940s to the present day.
The Battle of Mavelana and the Battle of Vadis in Fergana was a major war fought in the 1940s in which Selçukür tried to stop the British invasion.
Urumqi City… pic.twitter.com/jTKRqU5ohn
— Hakan Fidan (@HakanFidan) June 5, 2024
Fidan refuted the Chinese Communist Party’s claim that there are no Turks in East Turkestan, but reports of his visit do not indicate that he mentioned the Uighur genocide or pressured China to respect the human rights of the region’s indigenous people, other than to gently urge China to allow the Uighurs to “live according to their values.”
On the contrary, Chinese media have claimed that Fidan is open to expanding “security” cooperation with China and argues that any affinity with the Uighurs does not undermine China’s ethnic cleansing programme.
According to the government-approved Xinjiang Daily newspaper, Fidan Said “During his visit to Xinjiang, he saw well-developed urban infrastructure, prosperous society, and well-preserved various ethnic cultures and languages,” his Chinese host said. South China Morning Post.
“The Turkish foreign minister also said Turkey will not tolerate any activities inside China that endanger its security and territorial integrity,” it added, a sign that Ankara will silence Uighurs protesting the genocide inside Turkey, which is home to one of the world’s largest Uighur diaspora communities.
Uighur protesters this week condemned Fidan’s visit as an endorsement of the ongoing mistreatment of Uighurs.
“East Turkistan is undergoing oppression and genocide, with Uighur men being sent to concentration camps and their wives being forced to live with Han Chinese,” said Kok Bole, head of the Turkey-based Blue Turkistan Vodun Association. Said RFA at the Istanbul protests. “How long will we remain silent?”
In Washington, members of East Turkestan’s government-in-exile denounced the Turkish government as “traitors.”
“Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s recent visit to China, followed by a visit to occupied East Turkistan and allying himself with China’s genocidal regime, is not just a diplomatic issue but an open endorsement of China’s genocidal policies,” said Saleh Khudayar, foreign minister of the government-in-exile. “This is a campaign of colonization and occupation against the Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Tatars and other Turkic peoples of occupied East Turkistan.”
