Turkish Foreign Minister in Xinjiang, anti-terrorism collaboration with China begins

The visit of the Foreign Minister of Türkiye, Hakan Fida, in the Xinjiang autonomous region, in north-west China, concluded yesterday with the agreement to strengthen cooperation in the fight against terrorism. As recalled by the “South China Morning Post” newspaper, Fidan’s visit to the region was the highest profile visit by a member of the Turkish government since the one conducted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in April 2012. The region has long been a sore point in relations between China and Turkey, among the most fervent critics of the alleged human rights violations attributed to the Chinese Communist Party in the region, especially with regard to the Turkic and Islamic minority of the Uyghurs , to which Ankara is strongly linked due to cultural, religious and linguistic affinities.

Fidan visited the capital Urumqi and held meetings with the head of the regional branch of the Chinese Communist Party Ma Xingrui and the president of the local administration Erkin Tuniyaz. According to the report published by the “Xinjiang Daily” newspaper, during the meeting, Ma expressed his intention to cooperate with Turkey to “combat separatism, extremism and terrorism together”. The latter, in particular, has caused “serious damage” to the security of Xinjiang, said the local representative of the Communist Party, who has often motivated the repressive policies undertaken against ethnic minorities with the need to safeguard social stability of the region. Again according to the “Xinjiang Daily”, Fidan expressed his willingness to deepen cooperation on initiatives to combat terrorism, observed the “good protection of cultures” and reiterated that Ankara “has not supported nor been involved in initiatives against China under the pretext of ethnic issues.”

During his visit to Xinjiang, Fidan also visited the city of Kashgar, considered “the cradle of Uyghur culture”. The Turkic minority of Islamic religion has for years been at the center of the international debate due to the abuses and forced labor to which it is allegedly subjected by the Chinese Communist Party, accused by the United States of having carried out a real “genocide” in the region. The Uyghur issue has also caused quite a bit of friction between Ankara and Beijing. In 2009, Erdogan described violent ethnic clashes in Urumqi as “a kind of genocide” and, ten years later, Beijing closed its consulate in Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city, after repeated criticism of its treatment of Xinjiang’s Muslims . Erdogan raised the issue with the president Xi Jinping even three years ago, stressing the importance of treating Uyghurs as “equal citizens” of the Chinese. At the same time, the Chinese government has sought to downplay efforts by some Turkish politicians to highlight their ethnic affinity with the Uyghurs, going so far as to state in a white paper published in 2019 that the group is “not descended from the Turks.” .

Despite the disputes, the countries have strengthened economic ties in recent years and appear to have reached a broad understanding on the issue of human rights. In the press conference held yesterday with Fidan in Beijing, the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated that “the two countries agreed to oppose the interference of external forces in their respective affairs under the pretext of democracy and human rights.” The Communist Party has always defended the policies adopted in Xinjiang, tracing them to the need to counter terrorism and extremist acts. Over the years, it has also invited foreign dignitaries and diplomats to visit the region, including the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet. The former president of Chile traveled to Xinjiang from May 23 to 28, 2022. The trip raised concerns among several international organizations and in the United States, which said the “poorly negotiated” conditions of the visit compromised a rare opportunity for independent monitoring of human rights.

The report of the visit was published on August 31, 2022, outlining a series of gender-based violence, compulsory health treatments and forced detentions that occurred in the “vocational education and training centers” officially established by the Chinese Communist Party with the aim of “rehabilitating the extremists.” Citing various government documents leaked over the years and the direct testimonies of victims, the United Nations document defines as “highly credible” the accusations of torture and mistreatment made against China by activists and survivors, also denouncing the lack of independent access to the region for UN officials. Precisely the obstacles placed by Beijing to the free search for information “did not allow the High Commissioner to draw definitive conclusions on the extent of the abuse”, which could have affected up to a million people.

The contents of the report were promptly contested by the Beijing government, which defined the assessment as a “slanderous” document fabricated by forces hostile to the country. The protest was accompanied by a 121-page counter-report, reiterating the threat of terrorism in Xinjiang and the need for the state’s “de-radicalization and vocational education and training centers” program. The debate on human rights “must be conducted on the basis of equality and mutual respect. Furthermore, the objective reality and the path of development of human rights chosen independently by each country on the basis of the (national) conditions and needs of the population must be respected”, states the document published by Beijing, which calls for an end to the “double standards” on the issue and to avoid using human rights to “interfere in the affairs of other countries”. The United Nations Human Rights Council, the text concludes, “must interpret efforts to combat terrorism and the human rights situation in Xinjiang in a fair and impartial manner.”

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