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
Shooter kills 9 at Canadian school and residence
- The shooter was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound
- A total of 27 people were wounded in the shooting, including two with serious injuries
TORONTO: A shooter killed nine people and wounded dozens more at a secondary school and a residence in a remote part of western Canada on Tuesday, authorities said, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in the country’s history.
The suspect, described by police in an initial emergency alert as a “female in a dress with brown hair,” was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
The attack occurred in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, a picturesque mountain valley town in the foothills of the Rockies.
A total of 27 people were wounded in the shooting, including two with serious injuries, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “devastated” by the “horrific acts of violence” and announced he was suspending plans to travel to the Munich Security Conference on Wednesday, where he had been set to hold talks with allies on transatlantic defense readiness.
Police said an alert was issued about an active shooter at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School on Tuesday afternoon.
As police searched the school, they found six people shot dead. A seventh person with a gunshot wound died en route to hospital.
Separately, police found two more bodies at a residence in the town.
The residence is “believed to be connected to the incident,” police said.
At the school, “an individual believed to be the shooter was also found deceased with what appears to be a self?inflicted injury,” police said.
Police have not yet released any information about the age of the shooter or the victims.
“We are devastated by the loss of life and the profound impact this tragedy has had on families, students, staff, and our entire town,” the municipality of Tumbler Ridge said in a statement.
Tumbler Ridge student Darian Quist told public broadcaster CBC that he was in his mechanics class when there was an announcement that the school was in lockdown.
He said that initially he “didn’t think anything was going on,” but started receiving “disturbing” photos about the carnage.
“It set in what was happening,” Quist said.
He said he stayed in lockdown for more than two hours until police stormed in, ordering everyone to put their hands up before escorting them out of the school.
Trent Ernst, a local journalist and a former substitute teacher at Tumbler Ridge, expressed shock over the shooting at the school, where one of his children has just graduated.
He noted that school shootings have been a rarity occurring every few years in Canada compared with the United States, where they are far more frequent.
“I used to kind of go: ‘Look at Canada, look at who we are.’ But then that one school shooting every 2.5 years happens in your town and things... just go off the rails,” he told AFP.
‘Heartbreak’
While mass shootings are extremely rare in Canada, last April, a vehicle attack that targeted a Filipino cultural festival in Vancouver killed 11 people.
British Columbia Premier David Eby called the latest violence “unimaginable.”
Nina Krieger, British Columbia’s minister of public safety, said it was “one of the worst mass shootings in our province’s and country’s history.”
The Canadian Olympic Committee, whose athletes are competing in the 2026 Winter Games in Italy, said Wednesday it was “heartbroken by the news of the horrific school shooting.”
Ken Floyd, commander of the police’s northern district, said: “This has been an incredibly difficult and emotional day for our community, and we are grateful for the cooperation shown as officers continue their work to advance the investigation.”
Floyd told reporters the shooter was the same suspect police described as “female” in a prior emergency alert to community members, but declined to provide any details on the suspect’s identity.
The police said officers were searching other homes and properties in the community to see if there were additional sites connected to the incident.
Tumbler Ridge, a quiet town with roughly 2,400 residents, is more than 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) north of Vancouver, British Columbia’s largest city.
“There are no words sufficient for the heartbreak our community is experiencing tonight,” the municipality said.
