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China warns its nationals in Turkey to be cautious
In a statement posted on its Web site over the weekend, the ministry advised Chinese residents and organizations in Turkey to "avoid populous areas and sensitive sites as much as possible” and to “strengthen security precautions,” saying some Chinese people and groups have received threats.
Turkey and China have had uneasy relations over the past month due to violent clashes between local ethnic-Turkic Muslim Uighurs and the dominant Han Chinese community that started on July 5 in Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, which left 197 dead and several hundred wounded according to official Chinese numbers.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called the incidents “almost tantamount to genocide” against Uighurs, angering China. Last month, Turkish Trade Minister Nihat Ergün called on Turkish citizens to boycott Chinese goods, although his ministry later clarified that Ergün was only stating his personal view. There were also frequent street protests, organized mostly by Uighur solidarity associations and nationalist groups, across Turkey. But no violence targeting any Chinese national or business has been reported so far.
Chinese state news agency Xinhua said late Sunday that police in western China have detained another 319 people suspected of being involved in the deadly ethnic unrest in Urumqi. Police in Urumqi said the detentions were made in the city and elsewhere in the far western region, based on information given by the public or obtained in investigations. It did not say how many of those detained were Uighur or Han Chinese.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry statement did not specify the security threat against Chinese nationals in Turkey. The warning came as some radical Uighur groups pledged to attack Chinese nationals abroad in revenge for the deadly Xinjiang incidents.
On Saturday, the leader of a group referring to itself as the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) urged Muslims to attack Chinese people to punish Beijing for what he described as massacres against Uighur Muslims.
Just before the violence broke out in Xinjiang, President Abdullah Gül paid a visit to China, including a stop in Urumqi. He signed several agreements to boost bilateral cooperation in a number of areas including tourism. Gül asked the Chinese government to take measures to increase the number of Chinese tourists to Turkey. Currently, around 70,000 Chinese nationals visit Turkey each year.
Although Chinese officials say most of the 197 dead were Han Chinese, Uighur groups in exile say hundreds of Uighurs were killed. Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur leader living in exile in the United States who is accused by China of instigating the Urumqi clashes, has said nearly 10,000 Uighurs went missing in one night. Prime Minister Erdoğan said Kadeer would be granted a visa if she wants to visit Turkey, adding to the tension between Turkey and China.
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