Why Erdogan Has Abandoned the Uyghurs

 ΣΧΟΛΙΟ ΙΣΤΟΛΟΓΙΟΥ : Truth is that Turkey is now a Chinese colony.!

It’s been eight years since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Xinjiang, the ostensibly autonomous territory inhabited by Uyghur Muslims living under Chinese control. And in 2009, Erdogan called Chinese repression of Uyghurs a “genocide,” drawing the wrath of Beijing and cementing his reputation as a defiant Muslim leader willing to speak truth to totalitarian power.

Eight years seems like a lifetime given how much the Chinese Communist Party has encroached on Uyghur rights in just about every aspect of life. By now, much of the world has heard of the millions of Uyghurs being rounded up into concentration camps in Xinjiang (though no one seems to be doing much about it).

Beijing says the interned are being cleansed of extremism and taught how to be good citizens. And that they’re free to leave whenever they like. As someone whose father was interned, tortured, and released from a Chinese concentration camp two years later with a broken leg, I can assure you these camps are nothing but prisons that enable ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide.

Yet Uyghur repression didn’t start with the camps. Even when Erdogan was in Xinjiang, many Uyghurs were trying to get out. They saw Erdogan’s visit as a gesture of solidarity. The Uyghurs are an ethnically Turkic people, and our language is closely related to Turkish. So moving to Turkey made sense, especially considering how the country offered Uyghurs asylum as early as 1952.

Unfortunately, what seemed like a good idea in 2012 turned out to be a false hope. Erdogan’s authoritarian efforts to keep power in Turkey by muzzling the free press and locking up dissidents have made him an uneasy ally for liberal democracies. All the more reason for him to look to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping while grappling with a floundering economy. Unfortunately, this often translates into changing Ankara’s policy toward Turkey’s 35,000 Uyghurs, from offering a safe haven to imposing downright repression.

Most Uyghurs have found it much harder to get resident permits or citizenship after 2014. They can’t make a living but risk being interned if they go back to Xinjiang. China also refused to renew their passports. Gradually, a Turkish government that was supposed to offer them freedom is now raiding Uyghur homes, arresting hundreds of people, and coordinating deportations with Beijing.

Take Zinnetgul Tursun, a Uyghur refugee whose family was lucky enough to get residential status in Turkey. Two years ago, her family (including two toddlers) was suddenly detained. Tursun was mysteriously deemed an illegal migrant from Tajikistan and sent back to China with her kids. This kind of treatment has become routine for Uyghurs in Turkey, who now live in fear of further persecution.

This is happening as Turkey shifts away from its NATO allies and toward Russia and China. China just ratified an extradition agreement with Turkey in what it calls a counterterrorism partnership. Erdogan has plenty of allies in this new status quo.

Take Dogu Perincek, head of Turkey’s left-wing nationalist Patriotic Party, who has exerted serious influence over Turkey-China relations after aligning himself with Erdogan. A Maoist ideologue and staunch supporter of Beijing, Perincek even compared Uyghurs in an article to the Kurdish militant group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

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