BEIJING: Beijing has warned its citizens in Turkey to “be more vigilant,” as bilateral tensions rise after strong Turkish criticism of China’s treatment of its minority Uighur community.
Nearly one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking minorities are being held in extrajudicial detention in camps in Xinjiang, according to a UN panel of experts, where most of China’s more than 10 million Uighurs live.
Beijing has admitted to placing people in “vocational education centers” to prevent radical Islamism. Critics however allege Uighurs in the camps are being brainwashed in a massive campaign to enforce conformity with Chinese society and abandon Islam.
The northwestern Xinjiang region — home to some 10 million Uighurs — has long suffered from violent unrest, which China claims is orchestrated by an organized “terrorist” movement seeking the region’s independence.
Turkey, which has its own significant Uighur population, said on Saturday China’s treatment of the Uighurs was “a great embarrassment for humanity.”
It also called on the international community and the UN “to take effective steps to end the human tragedy in Xinjiang region.”
China’s embassy to Turkey wrote on its website: “We call once more on Chinese citizens in Turkey and Chinese tourists going to Turkey to be more vigilant and pay attention to their personal security as well as the security of their belongings.”
The warning was posted on Sunday, the day after the declarations by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Violent anti-China protests against the county’s treatment of the Uighurs have previously broken out in Turkey. In 2015, militant Turkish nationalists burnt a Chinese flag in front of China’s embassy in Ankara.
A popular Chinese restaurant in Istanbul also had its windows smashed and a group of South Korean tourists who were visiting the city was attacked because they were mistaken for Chinese.
China warns its citizens in Turkey to ‘be more vigilant’
China warns its citizens in Turkey to ‘be more vigilant’
- Nearly one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking minorities are being held in extrajudicial detention in camps in Xinjiang
- Beijing has admitted to placing people in “vocational education centers” to prevent extremism
Kurdish official says Kurds committed to deals with Damascus despite Aleppo violence
- Ahmad said that “we are committed to peace and to resolving problems through dialogue”
- She accused Syria’s authorities of “choosing the path of war” by attacking Kurdish districts in Aleppo
BEIRUT: Syria’s Kurds are committed to agreements reached with the government, a senior official from their administration told AFP on Friday, despite days of violence in the northern city of Aleppo.
The government and Kurdish forces have traded blame over who started the fighting on Tuesday, which came as they have struggled to implement a deal reached last March to merge the Kurds’ administration and military into the country’s new government.
Elham Ahmad, a senior official in the Kurdish administration in Syria’s northeast, said that “we are committed to peace and to resolving problems through dialogue. But until now, the government... does not want a solution.”
She accused Syria’s authorities of “choosing the path of war” by attacking Kurdish districts in Aleppo.
“With these attacks, the government side is seeking to put an end to the agreements that have been reached. We are committed to them and we are seeking to implement them,” she said.
The government announced a truce early Friday after days of deadly violence that has forced thousands to flee, and granted Kurdish fighters a deadline to leave two districts they control.
But the fighters were refusing to leave the Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsud areas and intended to “resist” the Syrian army encircling them, a statement by the local councils of the two neighborhoods said.
Ahmad said that “the United States is playing a mediating role... we hope they will apply pressure to reach an agreement.”
A diplomatic source told AFP on Friday that US envoy Tom Barrack was headed to Damascus.
