April 12, 2021 | The National Interest
Turkey’s Courtship with China Spells Trouble for Uyghurs
The deepening courtship between these two authoritarian regimes will only intensify the plight of Uyghurs in both countries.
April 12, 2021 | The National Interest
Turkey’s Courtship with China Spells Trouble for Uyghurs
The deepening courtship between these two authoritarian regimes will only intensify the plight of Uyghurs in both countries.
“The incidents in China are, simply put, a genocide. There’s no point in interpreting this otherwise,” said Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2009, almost twelve years before the United States applied that label to the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghurs in the country’s northwest Xinjiang region. As a growing number of countries join Washington’s vocal criticism of Beijing, Ankara appears to be pulling a volte-face, not only silencing its criticism of the Chinese government but also strengthening its bilateral partnership. This spells trouble for the 50,000 Uyghurs who have taken refuge in Turkey as well as their 12 million brethren back in China.