Turkey’s opposition party condemns CCP persecution of Uighurs as CCP pressures with vaccine procurement.
There have been long-standing rumors of political pressure on Turkey by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with the supply of vaccine for the CCP virus (COVID-19, Wuhan pneumonia). Turkish Health Minister Kuza confirmed indirectly for the first time on June 6 that opposition parties’ condemnation of the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Uighurs may have adversely affected Turkey’s procurement of vaccines from China.
In a televised statement last night, Kuza said, “Those who are asking today where the vaccines are in China have tried to undermine our relations with China [the Chinese Communist Party] in the past,” Middle East Eye reported…. They have adversely affected this (referring to vaccine procurement).”
The newspaper noted, “Ketza’s statement is the first indirect acknowledgement by the government that the supply of Koxin vaccine to the Turkish population by China (CCP) may have been compromised by the controversy over the Turkic Uighur minority.”
The persecution of the Uighurs, who are ethnically and culturally a Turkic people, in China has always been a focus of concern for Turkish nationalists. Turkish opposition parties have condemned Kıza for downplaying the fact that Beijing persecutes Uyghurs.
Meral Aksener, leader of the opposition nationalist Iyi Party, said, “Uighur Turks have been the target of a real genocide in China… It’s shameful that Koza, who is raping and genociding Turkic Muslim women, pretends that it’s a sensitive issue that we shouldn’t be stirring up.”
The Chinese Communist Party is accused of using vaccines as a diplomatic tool, exporting vaccines to vulnerable countries in a vaccine scare and using them to expand its influence or pressure them to keep quiet about the Communist Party’s human rights abuses.
Turkey launched a mass vaccination campaign in full swing on January 14, once ranking 6th in the world in terms of the number of vaccines administered, but was left with no further supply of vaccines to follow.
This is despite a previous agreement between Turkey and the Chinese Communist Party to purchase 100 million doses of the Beijing Kexing CoronaVac vaccine. But the first deliveries were delayed last December, and claims surfaced that the Chinese Communist Party was using the vaccine shipments to pressure Turkey to ratify an extradition treaty between the two countries.
The Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) ratified the Extradition Treaty between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Turkey last December, and the Treaty is currently awaiting ratification by the Turkish Parliament.
Ketza also confirmed last week that Beijing did not provide the subsequent 50 million doses of vaccine as promised because of the priority given to its domestic vaccination.
Turkey has long been a haven for Uighurs in Xinjiang, with tens of thousands of them fleeing to Turkey to escape the Communist Party’s crackdown.
On April 5, Aksenar and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas, the leader of the left-wing Republican People’s Party (CHP), tweeted separately about the incident on the 31st anniversary of the Uighur “Barren Township Uprising. Aksenar said Turkey “will not remain silent about the persecution of the Uighurs and their martyrdom,” while Yavas said “the massacre still hurts us.
On April 6, the Chinese Communist Embassy in Turkey responded by posting a War Wolf-style tweet saying, “It is an internationally accepted and indisputable fact that the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region is an inseparable part of China’s territory.” Another tweet read, “The CCP firmly opposes and strongly condemns any person or force that challenges the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the CCP. China reserves the right to make a legitimate response.”
The tweets angered Turkish netizens, making “Chinese Communist Embassy” one of the most popular topics on Turkish Twitter that night and leading to a page shuffle of the Chinese embassy’s tweets; the Turkish Foreign Ministry also summoned the Chinese ambassador to Turkey, Liu Shaobin, to express his displeasure.
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