Turkey reacts to the ratification by Beijing on Saturday, December 26, of an extradition treaty that could be used for the return to China of certain exiled Uighurs.
Le Monde avec AFP
After the ratification by China, on December 26, of an extradition treaty with Turkey, Ankara wished to reassure, Wednesday, December 30, the members of the Uighur community exiled in Turkey. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the country would not send Uighurs back to China.
Concern was high among this Muslim community, of which tens of thousands have taken refuge in Turkey . In particular because the Chinese government wanted to use this text to speed up the return of certain Uighurs, accused of “terrorism”. Mr Cavusoglu clarified: “It is incorrect to say that [Beijing’s ratification] means that Turkey will return the Uighurs to China. This only applies to people guilty [of crimes].”
“Turkey has not applied these measures”
This extradition treaty, signed in 2017, has not been ratified by the Turkish Parliament. “In the past, there have been requests for the return to China of Uighurs from Turkey. Turkey has not implemented these measures,” added the Turkish foreign minister.
The country has linguistic and cultural ties with the Uighurs, Muslims speaking a Turkic language. Ankara has long been one of the main defenders of their cause, while China has initiated a policy of maximum surveillance of the Uighurs in the Xinjiang region (north-west). Beijing holds the separatist and Islamist Uighur movement responsible for numerous deadly attacks committed against civilians.
In addition to their permanent surveillance, the Uighurs are interned in what Beijing calls “vocational training centers” and are subjected forced labor, especially in the textile industry of Xinjiang province.