ISTANBUL: Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil, a German footballer of Turkish origin, on Friday expressed support for Uighurs in Xinjiang and criticized Muslim countries for their failure to speak up for them.
“Qur’ans are being burnt... Mosques are being shut down ... Muslim schools are being banned ... Religious scholars are being killed one by one ... Brothers are forcefully being sent to camps,” Ozil wrote in Turkish on his Twitter account.
“The Muslims are silent. Their voice is not heard,” he wrote on a background of a blue field with a white crescent moon, the flag of what Uighur separatists call East Turkestan.
China has faced growing international condemnation for setting up a vast network of camps in Xinjiang aimed at homogenizing the Uighur population to reflect China’s majority Han culture.
Rights groups and experts say more than one million Uighurs and people of other mostly Muslim ethnic minorities have been rounded up in the camps in the tightly-controlled region.
After initially denying the camps, China describes them as vocational schools aimed at dampening the allure of extremism and violence.
Turkey, which takes its name from Turkic people who migrated from central Asia, is home to an Uighur community and has regularly raised concerns about the situation in Xinjiang.
In his tweet, Ozil said Western states and media had kept the Uighurs issue on their agenda and added: “what will be remembered years later would not be the torture by the tyrants but the silence of their Muslim brothers.”
The 31-year-old footballer, sparked controversy last year when he was photographed with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, raising questions about his loyalty to Germany on the eve of their 2018 World Cup campaign.
Ozil later quit the national squad, accusing German football officials of racism. Erdogan was Ozil’s best man when the footballer was married in Istanbul this year.
Arsenal’s Ozil condemns Muslim silence over Uighurs
https://arab.news/8xerm
Arsenal’s Ozil condemns Muslim silence over Uighurs
- China has faced growing international condemnation for setting up a vast network of camps in Xinjiang aimed at homogenizing the Uighur population
- Turkey is home to an Uighur community and has regularly raised concerns about the situation in Xinjiang
Russia says two crew members from US-seized tanker released
- “Two Russian sailors have been released and are on their way home to Russia,” Zakharova said
- Russia announced earlier this month that the US had decided to release the Russian duo
MOSCOW: Moscow said Wednesday two Russian crew members of a tanker seized this month by the United States in the Atlantic had been released and were on their way home.
US authorities took over the Russian-flagged vessel earlier this month, alleging it was part of a shadow fleet carrying oil from countries such as Venezuela, Russia and Iran in violation of US sanctions.
The United States said publicly that the Marinera’s crew could be prosecuted. Russia said that would be “categorically unacceptable” and accused Washington of stoking tensions and threatening international shipping.
“Two Russian sailors have been released and are on their way home to Russia,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency on Wednesday.
Russia announced earlier this month that the United States had decided to release the two Russian crew members, but last week its Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the decision had not yet been implemented.
The captain and the first officer of the tanker have left UK waters, Solicitor General for Scotland, Ruth Charteris told a court hearing Tuesday, Press Association news agency reported.
“The captain and the first officer are now aboard the US Coast Guard vessel Munro and have departed the United Kingdom’s territorial sea,” Charteris said.
Twenty-six of the 28 crew have left the ship, officials told AFP. They were processed at a military site in Inverness, Scotland, the court was told, according to Press Association.
Five wanted to travel to the United States and 21 elsewhere. None have claimed asylum, the court heard.
“At the request of the US authorities, crew members have been allowed to disembark for onwards travel,” a UK government spokesperson told AFP Wednesday.
“They will be processed in line with all appropriate immigration and legal requirements.”
Britain was not involved in the movement of the other two crew members, the government said.
The United States seized the tanker, previously known as Bella 1, which was being escorted by the Russian navy, after chasing it from near the Venezuelan coast.
It was re-flagged and re-named to bring it under Russian jurisdiction in a bid to discourage the United States from trying to take it as part of its campaign against Venezuela.
