Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour.
https://www.ft.com/content/caee8cac-...9-296ca66511c9
Turkey’s Uighurs fear for future after China deportation
Community concerned Ankara will prioritise expansion of economic ties to Beijing
Uighur Turks protest in Ankara on the 10th anniversary of the Urumqi massacre in East Turkestan on July 5, 2019. - Nearly 200 people died during a series of violent riots that broke out on July 5, 2009 over several days in Urumqi, the capital city of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in northwestern China, between Uyghurs and Han people. (Photo by Adem ALTAN / AFP) (Photo credit should read ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Member of the Uighur community at a protest in July in the Turkish capital, Ankara © Adam Altan/AFP
Share on Twitter (opens new window)
Share on Facebook (opens new window)
Share on LinkedIn (opens new window)
Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul and Christian Shepherd in Beijing August 24 2019
Print this page
The last time Jennetgul Tursun spoke with her sister Zinnetgul, an ethnic Uighur held in a Turkish detention centre, Zinnetgul voiced fears she would be deported to China along with her two young daughters.
Within two weeks, the family were handed over to the Chinese authorities, Jennetgul said, a case that has stoked alarm among the sizeable Uighur diaspora in Turkey that the country is no longer the haven it has been for decades.
“Turkey has defended so many persecuted people. I can’t understand why they turned over my sister . . . Why didn’t they protect us?” she said in an interview from her home in Saudi Arabia.
Turkey hosts one of the largest population outside China of Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic group who have faced a severe security clampdown in their native Xinjiang province. An estimated 1.5m Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been confined to Chinese internment camps, where human rights groups say they are forced to renounce their faith and scores have disappeared. Beijing defends the hardline measures as necessary to fight “extremism”.
Uighur women hold East Turkestan flags at the courtyard of Fatih Mosque, a common meeting place for pro-Islamist demonstrators, during a protest against China, in Istanbul, Turkey, November 6, 2018. REUTERS/Murad Sezer SEARCH
Uighur women and children at an Istanbul mosque during a protest against China © Murad Sezer/Reuters
Unlike most Muslim countries, which have been silent or supportive of Beijing’s policy, Turks have rallied around the cause of the Uighurs, with whom they share a related language. The Turkish government in February called on China to close the camps, describing them as a “shame for humanity”.
Yet there are mounting fears among Turkey’s 30,000-strong Uighur community that this commitment is weakening, and that Ankara is willing to put aside its differences with China to expand economic ties.
Activists say Beijing is exporting its Xinjiang campaign by pushing other nations to return Uighurs who have fled China. “We know China is pressuring Turkey,” said Seyit Tumturk, head of the East Turkestan National Assembly, a Uighur rights group. “Uighurs in Turkey are on a knife’s edge.”
Turkey has turned to China for cash as its economy has slowed over the past year, including a $3.6bn loan from a state-run Chinese bank in 2018. Bloomberg reported that China’s central bank transferred $1bn in June to boost Turkey’s foreign exchange reserves.
We do not send anyone back to China if they face [persecution]
Suleyman Soylu, Turkish interior minister
During a visit last month to Beijing, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted by Chinese state media as backing his host’s policies in Xinjiang, although his office reportedly refuted the translation.
The meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping took place as Turkey’s western allies fret that the country is aligning itself more closely with Beijing, and Moscow, amid a widening rift with the US, including over Ankara’s purchase of sophisticated Russian weapons.
Sean Roberts, a director at The Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, said: “Turkey is less confident of its relationship with the US, and the Chinese are providing an alternative.”
Hundreds of Uighurs are being held in Turkish refoulement centres and 40 others have lost their residency in recent months, according to activists. Turkish authorities have not released figures.
“We do not send anyone back to China if they face [persecution]”, Suleyman Soylu, Turkish interior minister who oversees immigration policy, told reporters on Wednesday. He said Turkey had given long-term residency to about 11,000 Uighurs since 2018, part of a liberal asylum policy that has made it the world’s biggest recipient of refugees.
In the case of Zinnetgul Tursun, she was accused of terrorism and was deported to Tajikistan after its authorities claimed she was a citizen, Mr Soylu said, promising an investigation into her case and noting that one incident does not reflect a change in Turkish policy.
Tajik deportees who were with her on the plane to the capital Dushanbe in June saw her and at least six other Uighurs handed over to Chinese officials at the airport, according to Jennetgul Tursun. International law forbids sending people to countries where they risk being persecuted.
uighur
Abuduani Abulaiti, a Uighur living in Turkey, fears he will be deported to China
Abuduani Abulaiti, 42, an ethnic Uighur who arrived in Turkey in 2013, was ordered to leave the country last month after his residency application was rejected.
Immigration officials have assured Mr Abulaiti he will not be deported to China, but he said he still feared Beijing’s “power and money” would sway Turkey. Two of his brothers are being held in Chinese camps, and a third has been missing for two years after returning home from a visit to Turkey.
“My whole life is about living in Turkey, but the situation here has become complicated. I am anxious because anti-foreigner sentiment is rising,” Mr Abulaiti said.
Recommended
Chinese politics & policy
Xinjiang phone app exposes how Chinese police monitor Uighur Muslims
Most western nations have said they will not deport Uighurs, but a handful have still ended up in China. Germany has admitted mistakenly deporting a Uighur asylum seeker last year.
An international diplomatic divide emerged at the UN last month, when 22 western countries signed a letter criticising Beijing’s campaign. That was answered by a note from 50 nations, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, backing China. Turkey did not sign either letter.
China’s effort to line up countries to support it in the face of western criticism over human rights abuses in Xinjiang has become a “bellwether for a shifting global order”, said the Elliott School’s Mr Roberts.
“If Turkey was to recognise that what’s happening in China is not a mass human rights violation, that would be a huge win for China,” he said.
https://www.ft.com/content/caee8cac-...9-296ca66511c9