Turkey, China, and Xinjiang
The Turkish government has offered Rebiya Kadeer the opportunity to visit Turkey, as reported by Today’s Zaman. Given that her two previous attempts to visit Turkey were denied, this unprompted invitation is significant. Moreover, the fact that her invitation was confirmed publicly by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan only serves to confirm how seriously the Turkish government is taking the recent events in Xinjiang.
According to the Turkish Daily News, Prime Minister Erdoğan went so far as to state that
“On the one hand, we will talk about universal human rights, and on the other hand, we will just watch such incidents. It’s incredible,”…
“I expressed my views [about the incidents] to the head of the states and prime ministers during my meetings here. I already used the word ’atrocity’ [while describing the incidents in China]. I am behind my words,” Erdoğan said, adding, “Well, I don’t think any other word could better describe such incidents, which are almost genocide, where hundreds of people were killed and more than 1,000 people were injured.” (Emphasis added)
The history of Turkey’s relationship with China, as well as its relationship with the Uyghur communities in Xinjiang and in the diaspora, is complex. Yitzhak Shichor’s new piece, “Ethno-Diplomacy: The Uyghur Hitch in Sino-Turkish Relations” offers a nuanced, succinct, and astute analysis, placed in historical context, of Turkey’s domestic and foreign policies regarding China and the Uyghurs.
That is an interesting development. I always assumed that the Turkish gov’t was not openly supportive of the Uyghurs because they didn’t want to give their Kurds any ideas.
Personally, I don’t think anyone in Turkey makes much of a connection between the situation in Xinjiang, and the plight of the Kurds. Which is odd, I suppose, but never underestimate the power of nationalism to hide what is immediately apparent to outside observers. I have spoken to Uyghurs in Turkey who had served in the Turkish army, and they described to me with pride how they had put down Kurdish protests! It’s very much a weakness of the Uyghur movement internationally that they seem unwilling to state their case in terms of other oppressed ethnicities elsewhere, something which might lead them to recognise parallels with the Kurds.
So, I think support for the Uyghurs in Turkey has largely been articulate within a very narrow nationalist discourse, I don’t think the government was ever worried about giving ammunition to the Kurds.
[...] via The New Dominion » Turkey, China, and Xinjiang. [...]
Dawutjan, these are very interesting observations, thank you!
An interesting observation that I have not seen mentioned in the discussion of the Sino – Turkish angle on xinjiang events is the recent visit to beijing and urumqi of Turkish president Gul at the end of June (where he received an honorary degree at xinjiang university). I was in beijing at the time where tiananmen was covered with Chinese and Turkish flags. With this visit fresh in memory, I’m sure senior Turkish politicians may have been angry at being fed the peace and harmony line about the Uyghurs only to have demonstrations and riots happen days later.