By Mercy Imali
Chinese State media has reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly told President Xi Jinping that ethnic minorities live happily in Xinjiang. This is a surprise turnaround considering his earlier extreme harsh criticism of Beijing.
“Turkey stays committed to the one-China policy,” Erdogan said. He stressed that residents of various ethnicities live happily in Xinjiang, Uighur Autonomous Region thanks to China’s prosperity as a hard fact. He added that Turkey will not allow anyone to drive a wedge in its relations with China.
He went on to express his readiness to deepen political mutual trust and strengthen security cooperation with China in opposing extremism.
Four months prior, the Turkish foreign ministry called the treatment of mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking Uighurs “a great embarrassment for humanity”.
Erdogan met Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday; China has come under growing criticism from western countries over its security clampdown in the northwest region. More than one million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities are believed to be held in a network of internment camps in the northwest region.
Beijing describes the camps as “vocational education centres” where “trainees” learn Mandarin and job skills in an effort to steer them away from religious extremism.