Turkey’s prime minister called for an end to “savagery” in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang that has killed at least 156 people, including many minority Uighurs who share ethnic bonds with Turks.
“Our expectation is for these incidents that have reached the level of savagery to be rapidly stopped,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.
RESPONSIBILITY
Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu made separate calls to China to bring “those responsible to account” in a transparent manner.
“We are following the events with great concern, worry and sadness,” the prime minister said.
The reaction of the Turkish leaders echoed public anger in Turkey after local media and pro-Uighur associations suggested that most of the victims were Uighurs.
Several newspapers have printed gruesome images of dead people in the streets of Urumqi following the clashes, triggering protests outside Chinese diplomatic missions in Ankara and Istanbul over the past two days.
“The public conscience cannot accept these images,” Erdogan said, adding that Turkey would take the issue to the UN Security Council.
About 500 Turks — members of a civil servants’ union and a far-right nationalist group — laid black wreaths in front of the Chinese embassy before dispersing peacefully. A similar protest was held outside the Chinese consulate in Istanbul.
Also on Wednesday, a lawmaker from Turkey’s ruling Islamic-rooted party resigned from a Chinese-Turkish parliamentary friendship group to protest the Chinese government’s handling of the incidents.
BOYCOTT
A consumers’ group meanwhile called for a boycott of Chinese goods.
“We attach great importance to our friendship with China and we regard the Uighurs as a bridge for this friendship,” Davutoglu said.
Turkey regards the Uighurs as brethren and is concerned about China’s treatment of the minority group in the sprawling, far-flung western region of Xinjiang which has long been a source of trouble for China’s communist government. Turkey is home to a sizable Uighur community.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in