ISTANBUL: Nearly 1,000 Uyghurs rallied in Istanbul on Thursday as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met his Turkish counterpart for talks expected to focus on coronavirus vaccines and the countries’ extradition treaty.
Wang also met privately with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a visit coinciding with a spike in new virus infections that follows an easing of restrictions at the start of the month.
Turkey is using the Chinese firm Sinovac’s CoronaVac jab in its inoculation effort and is currently negotiating new deliveries.
But the country’s 50,000-strong Uyghur community fears that China is making new shipments dependent on Turkey’s ratification of an extradition treaty that the parliament in Beijing approved late last year.
Both countries officially deny any such link and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted that he had “conveyed our sensitivity and thoughts on Uyghur Turks” to Wang.
Turkey and China “will enhance our cooperation on (the) fight against (the) pandemic,” as well as on vaccines, Cavusoglu’s tweet added.
The protesters waved sky blue flags of Uyghur separatists’ self-proclaimed state of East Turkestan as they gathered in Istanbul’s historic old town chanting “China, stop the genocide!”
Turkish police forced a smaller group of protesters to move away from China’s embassy in Ankara.
Rights groups believe at least one million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in camps spread out across the vast northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang.
Beijing strongly denies the allegations and says it is organizing training programs and work schemes to help stamp out extremism in the region.
Uyghurs speak a Turkic language and have cultural ties with the mostly Muslim but officially secular country that make it a favored destination for avoiding persecution back home.
“I am frustrated. Why is Turkey receiving the Chinese foreign minister?” protester Abdullatif Ragip told AFP.
“They do a lot of harm in East Turkestan,” the 62-year-old said.
Cavusoglu has argued that Ankara’s ratification of the extradition agreement would not mean it “will release Uyghurs to China.”
But Uyghurs in Turkey are pressing Erdogan’s government to join a new wave of Western sanctions against Chinese officials over their actions in Xinjiang.
Cavusoglu’s tweet said he and Wang “discussed (the) potential of economic cooperation” on the 50th anniversary of Ankara and Beijing establishing diplomatic ties.
“We are scared about the future,” said protesters Rahile Seker.
“What will happen to our children? Turkey should open its eyes and stand by innocent Uyghurs.”
Demonstrator Feyzullah Kaymak said Turkey must ask the Chinese foreign minister what happens in camps.
“We want Turkey to ask the Chinese foreign minister what happens over there... We want Turkey to raise its voice.”
The Turkish government released images of Cavusoglu and Wang sitting down for talks in Ankara but the two ministers have scheduled no press events.
Hundreds of Uyghurs protest Chinese minister’s Turkey visit
https://arab.news/95s93
Hundreds of Uyghurs protest Chinese minister’s Turkey visit
- The protesters waved sky blue flags of Uyghur separatists’ self-proclaimed state of East Turkestan as they gathered in Istanbul’s historic old town
- Uyghurs in Turkey are pressing Erdogan’s government to join a new wave of Western sanctions against Chinese officials over their actions in Xinjiang
Activist Peter Tatchell arrested over ‘globalize the intifada’ placard
- Arrest in London during Saturday protest an ‘attack on free speech,’ his foundation says
- Intifada ‘does not mean violence and is not antisemitic,’ veteran campaigner claims
LONDON: Prominent activist Peter Tatchell was arrested at a pro-Palestine march in central London, The Independent reported.
According to his foundation, the 74-year-old was arrested for holding a placard that said: “Globalize the intifada: Nonviolent resistance. End Israel’s occupation of Gaza & West Bank.”
The Peter Tatchell Foundation said in a statement that the activist labeled his Saturday arrest as an “attack on free speech.”
It added: “The police claimed the word intifada is unlawful. The word intifada is not a crime in law. The police are engaged in overreach by making it an arrestable offense.
“This is part of a dangerous trend to increasingly restrict and criminalize peaceful protests.”
Tatchell described the word “intifada,” an Arab term, as meaning “uprising, rebellion or resistance against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
“It does not mean violence and is not antisemitic. It is against the Israeli regime and its war crimes, not against Jewish people.”
According to his foundation, Tatchell was transported to Sutton police station to be detained following his arrest.
In December last year, London’s Metropolitan Police said that pro-Palestine protesters chanting “globalize the intifada” would face arrest, attributing the new rules to a “changing context” in the wake of the Bondi Beach attack in Australia.
“Officers policing the Palestine Coalition protest have arrested a 74-year-old man on suspicion of a public order offense. He was seen carrying a sign including the words ‘globalize the intifada’,” the Metropolitan Police said on X.
According to a witness, Tatchell had been marching near police officers with the placard for about a mile when the group came across a counterprotest.
He was then stopped and “manhandled by 10 officers,” said Jacky Summerfield, who accompanied Tatchell at the protest.
“I was shoved back behind a cordon of officers and unable to speak to him after that,” she said.
“I couldn’t get any closer to hear anything more than that; it was for Section 5 (of the Public Order Act).
“There had been no issue until that. He was walking near the police officers. Nobody had said or done anything.”
