He also visited the country's far western Xinjiang region, where riots erupted yesterday between ethnic Muslims, also known as Uighur Turks, and the security forces of China's Han majority. At the time this column was written, 140 people had died and 828 were injured as a result. News agencies reported that the incidents in Xinjiang marked the deadliest unrest to hit the region, which is rich in strategic mines but also sensitive due to its potential for deep ethnic unrest.
“Uighurs have suffered for years under racial profiling and unjust government policies that have painted the entire Uighur population as criminals and terrorists,” US-based Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer said in a statement released last week, according to Western news agencies reporting on the riots that broke out yesterday.
The Uighurs say an influx of ethnic Han Chinese into their traditional homeland has diluted Uighur culture and led to high unemployment. China considers Uighur activists criminals and terrorists for their opposition to Beijing's rule over Xinjiang.
Uighur Turks, who have a close ethnic kinship with Turkey, have long been suppressed by the Beijing regime and deprived of many rights, including their practice of religion.
Uighur Turks define themselves as inhabitants of East Turkestan, which refers to the eastern part of the greater Turkestan region of Central Asia and coincides with the present-day Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous region of China.
Though Turkey, as a state policy, has remained indifferent to the plight of the Uighur Turks, the undemocratic practices of Beijing's regime against them in particular has always remained a potential area of discontent between the two countries. Beijing has always been uneasy over close Turkish interest in the Xinjiang region.
Turkey, however, rightly pursued in recent years policies that do not promote a nationalistic approach to the problems of the Uighur Turks. But, in the words of Arif Keskin from the Ankara-based International Relations and Strategic Research Center (TURKSAM), a Eurasian think tank, Turkey has also become totally indifferent to the problems of the Muslims in Xinjiang.
The Turkish state has even exerted pressure upon an unidentified number of Uighur Turks in Turkey, beginning in the early 2000s under then-Prime Minister Mesut Yılmaz's government, Keskin asserted during a telephone interview with local TV station HaberTürk yesterday morning, whereas, he says, it is of great importance that Ankara should view the plight of the Uighur Turks from both an ethnic kinship and human rights viewpoint.
A row that erupted among the Turkish coalition partners of the time during a visit by then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin to Turkey in 2000 has proven how sensitive some Turkish political entities are on the question of the Uighur Turks. Then-coalition partner the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) objected at the time to the decoration of Zemin with a state medal before lifting its opposition at the last minute.
I do not know whether President Abdullah Gül, even with subtle diplomacy, told his counterparts during his recent visit to China and to the region that Chinese rulers should stop repressing this Muslim minority.
Turkey's trade with Russia reached $13 billion last year although there is an $8.6 billion gap in favor of China. Turkey's rather controversial policy of indifference to the problems of the Uighur Turks might have helped increase bilateral trade as well as making progress in its political ties. The two countries have even forged a military cooperation that culminated in the joint production of guided missiles.
Turkish-Chinese-made rockets, code named Yıldırım, were displayed for the first time during the Victory Day parade in August 2007 in Ankara. Turkey has long been cooperating with China for the development of an unspecified number of rockets with a range of 150 kilometers.
Turkey and China signed a military training and cooperation protocol in 2000 whereby soldiers from both countries are trained at each other's military academies.
It is important that Turkey should develop ties with China but at the same time it should explain to Beijing Turkey's sensitivity over the repression of the Uighur Turks. In addition, Turks who urge for a democracy that embraces respect for human rights, not only for themselves but also for the country's Kurds, should also be vocal and exert pressure on Ankara to use its influence on Beijing to stop the oppression of the Uighur Turks.
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