China’s official Xinhua news agency reported that a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People’s Congress approved the “Treaty on Extradition between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Turkey”. The news has raised concerns among Uighurs who have fled from China to Turkey. Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the World Uighur Congress, said China could use the extradition treaty with Turkey to fabricate charges that could send Uighurs in Turkey back to China.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan brought the issue to the Grand National Assembly (TBMM) for a vote in April 2019, but the TBMM has not yet approved it. Uyghurs in Turkey fear that it is “only a matter of time” before the Turkish government adopts the treaty.
Dilishati noted that Uighurs who fled to Turkey after being persecuted in China fear that China is using economic benefits to Turkey to serve Beijing’s political purposes.
Turkey is seen by the Uighurs as a haven from Chinese persecution because the two communities share a Turkic origin. It is estimated that at least 50,000 Uighurs are in Turkey, many having left the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region to escape persecution by the Chinese Communist Party.
Dilishati, spokesman for the Munich, Germany-based World Uighur Congress, called on the Turkish government to take tough measures and “issue a just solidarity to demand that China close the confinement camps and stop its extreme policy of genocide.”
U.N. experts say at least 1 million Uighurs and Muslims of other ethnicities are detained in what China calls “re-education camps” in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
Recent Comments