Turkey conveys ‘sensitivity’ about Uygurs to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi amid protest

Around 300 demonstrators gathered in Istanbul, chanting ‘Stop Uygur Genocide, Close the Camps’

The Turkish foreign minister also said the two countries would enhance their cooperation on Covid-19 vaccines during talks with his Chinese counterpart

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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan (right) meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Ankara on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:31pm, 25 Mar 2021Updated: 9:53pm, 25 Mar 2021

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday he conveyed Turkey’s “sensitivity and thoughts” about Uygur Muslims to his Chinese counterpart during talks in Ankara, amid protests in Istanbul.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Cavusoglu on Thursday as Uygur Muslims protested in Turkey against the treatment of their ethnic kin in the far western Chinese region of Xinjiang.

In a tweet after their talks, Cavusoglu said Ankara and Beijing would enhance their cooperation in the pandemic and on vaccines. Wang also met Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.

Beijing approved an extradition treaty between the two nations in December and with the deal awaiting ratification by Ankara’s parliament, activists among some 40,000 Uygurs living in Turkey have stepped up efforts to highlight their plight.

Uygurs’ worries have been fuelled by Ankara’s dependence on China for Covid-19 vaccines until now, having received 15 million doses from Sinovac Biotech and ordered tens of millions more. This week, Turkey received 1.4 million doses of the vaccine developed by Germany’s BioNTech, the first significant batch of non-Chinese vaccines.

Around 300 demonstrators gathered in Istanbul, chanting “Dictator China” and “Stop Uygur Genocide, Close the Camps”. Some waved the blue-and-white flags of the independence movement of East Turkestan, the name by which it refers to Xinjiang.