{"id":6050,"date":"2021-01-06T23:18:29","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T23:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=147001"},"modified":"2021-01-06T23:18:29","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T23:18:29","slug":"turkish-opposition-leader-says-extradition-treaty-with-china-should-hinge-on-xinjiang-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/06\/turkish-opposition-leader-says-extradition-treaty-with-china-should-hinge-on-xinjiang-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkish Opposition Leader Says Extradition Treaty With China Should Hinge on Xinjiang Probe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Turkish opposition leader Sel\u00e7uk \u00d6zda\u011f has called on President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan to withdraw an extradition treaty with China, saying ratification should not proceed until Beijing allows independent monitors to probe reports of human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).<\/p>\n

China\u2019s National People\u2019s Congress ratified a treaty with Turkey last week allowing for the forcible deportation of ethnic Uyghurs fleeing persecution by authorities in the XUAR, with opposition lawmakers in Turkey vowing to block ratification in their own parliament.<\/p>\n

Beijing has described the treaty signed in 2017 as a measure to defeat Islamic terrorism in the XUAR, where up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minority groups accused of religious extremism are believed to have been held in a vast network of internment camps since April of that year.<\/p>\n

Turkey is home to more than 50,000 of the world\u2019s nearly 12 million Uyghurs, who historically have viewed a fellow Turkic nation as a refuge and advocate for their religious and cultural rights.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Sel\u00e7uk \u00d6zda\u011f, vice chairman of Turkey\u2019s Future Party, met with Uyghurs protesting on behalf of missing or detained family members in front of the Chinese consulate in Istanbul and called on Erdo\u011fan\u2014head of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)\u2014and Turkish lawmakers to refrain from ratifying the treaty until Beijing allows foreign investigations of the situation in the XUAR.<\/p>\n

He said that doing so without an agreement from Beijing would be a \u201cdisgrace\u201d to the Uyghur community.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina must open its doors to all NGOs, law-enforcement agencies, politicians, and journalists around the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf what\u2019s happening in East Turkestan is a lie, we want to see it with our own eyes, hear it with our own ears, and know it in our own hearts,\u201d he added, using the name preferred by Uyghurs for their homeland.<\/p>\n

Chinese officials have said the camps in the XUAR are centers for \u201cvocational training,\u201d but reporting by RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service and other media outlets shows that detainees are mostly held against their will in cramped and unsanitary conditions, where they are forced to endure inhumane treatment and political indoctrination.<\/p>\n

Amid growing international scrutiny of the extralegal penal system, reports suggest that Uyghurs are being transferred from internment camps to forced labor situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil China opens its doors, the Republic of Turkey should not [ratify] an extradition agreement with China,\u201d \u00d6zda\u011f said. \u201cIf they sign it, they will have committed a betrayal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my role as a leader of the Future Party, I, along with leaders from parties across the whole of parliament, want to go and see the mosques of East Turkestan, to see whether there are camps. Let us take the names of the missing, one by one, so that the Turkish Republic might investigate them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attempts by RFA to contact the Chinese consulate in Istanbul went unanswered Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The statement by \u00d6zda\u011f, thought to be the first Turkish politician to have visited the Uyghur-led protests held at the Chinese consulate since the extradition treaty was signed on Dec. 21, represents the strongest challenge yet to the Erdo\u011fan government over the agreement.<\/p>\n

In particular, \u00d6zda\u011f called on Erdo\u011fan and his ally Nationalist Movement (MHP) Party leader Devlet Bah\u00e7eli to break with Do\u011fu Perin\u00e7ek, the leader of the radical left-wing Vatan Party (Homeland Party), who is known in Turkey for his pro-China support.<\/p>\n

Mevl\u00fct \u00c7avu\u015fo\u011flu, the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated last week that he would not extradite Uyghurs to China, however his comments have done little to comfort to members of the ethnic group living in Turkey in exile, who say they are concerned by ambiguities in the terms of the agreement. The treaty was submitted to the Turkish Parliament for approval by Erdo\u011fan last year and is still awaiting ratification.<\/p>\n

Concerns well-placed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mustafa Akyol, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington who monitors Turkish politics, told RFA that the concerns of Uyghur refugees in Turkey are well-placed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn China\u2019s view, all who have criticized the government or violated its restrictions on religion and ethnicity are terrorists,\u201d he said. \u201cWe cannot accept such an interpretation of terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the terrifying part of the issue is that Turkey\u2019s own interpretation of terrorism is as ambiguous as this one, meaning there\u2019s a commonality between them. This worries me, because Turkey also has a political mentality in which it is easy to label people as terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Akyol stressed that there are a number of opposition parties and other groups across Turkish society, including Islamic groups, who are putting pressure on the government of Turkey not to ratify the treaty. But he noted that, ultimately, the decision rests with Erdo\u011fan.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope is that the government\u2014or in reality, to put it more correctly, Erdo\u011fan, because the government and parliament don\u2019t have much of a role left to play in Turkey\u2014is forced to withdraw from the treaty as a result of pressure from public opinion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Erdo\u011fan takes the public pressure to heart and signals that he has decided not to ratify the treaty signed with China, the AKP in parliament and the MHP will act accordingly, and the treaty will not be put on the agenda. And thus, the Uyghurs in Turkey would be able to breathe a bit easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Akyol noted that a decade ago, Erdo\u011fan accused China of trying to wipe out the Uyghurs, but that his political opinions were different at the time and he was on a path toward making Turkey a member of the European Union. Now, however, the Turkish government appears to be taking great pains to avoid angering China.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commonality between Erdogan\u2019s absolute rule and the 2016 military coup is that Turkey has latched onto a mindset in which the West is the enemy and countries like Russia and China are allies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Stronger relations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Analysts have noted that the relationship between Turkey and China is increasingly growing stronger, with Erdo\u011fan recently pledging security cooperation with Beijing and saying that residents of the XUAR live happy and prosperous lives under Beijing\u2019s rule, according to reports in Chinese state media.<\/p>\n

The Turkish government had long refused to deport Uyghurs back to China, but that changed in June 2019\u2014two months after the extradition treaty was submitted to the parliament\u2014when Turkey sent several Uyghurs home via Tajikistan, including a woman named Zinnetgul Tursun along with her two toddler daughters.<\/p>\n

A month later, Tursun\u2019s sister, who lives in exile in Saudia Arabia, learned from her mother in the XUAR that Tursun had \u201cdisappeared\u201d and that her family had no information about what had happened to her, and was warned by her mother to end all further communication.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress exile group called on Turkey to refrain from ratifying the extradition treaty, which it said \u201cis likely to become another instrument of persecution for China, aiding the Chinese government in its coordinated efforts to forcibly return Uyghurs living abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reported by Jilil Kashgary for RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. Translated by the Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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