On Tuesday last week, after a long silence, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan mentioned Uighurs at the 79th UN General Assembly. “We are sensitive to the protection of the fundamental rights and freedoms of the Muslim Uighur Turks in a way that does not in any way harm the ‘one China policy’ and China’s territorial integrity and sovereign rights,” he said.
Even though Erdogan’s speech did not mention one of the world’s saddest situations — such as that more than 3 million Uighurs live in camps, that Uighur expatriates abroad have been unable to even talk to their families back home on the phone for seven years, a dangerous situation such as the vertical decrease in the birthrate of Uighurs in the past three years — Uighurs are still happy that their name was mentioned.
That is because China’s Uighur policy — whether through foreign relations or in domestic policy — aims to make the world forget about Uighurs and hide the massacre Beijing is committing. That is also why China used its diplomatic power last year to delay the publication of a report on Uighurs prepared by UN experts and also prevented the issue from being discussed at the UN Human Rights Council.
China organizes monthly “Xinjiang visits” to neighboring countries and organizations, shows fake scenes, covers up genocide, and even encourages others from abroad and in neighboring countries to praise this crime. Erdogan’s mentioning Uighurs at the UN is a historic event, a genuine attitude that inspires and gives hope.
That said, Uighurs were mentioned behind the problems of Palestine, Ukraine, Syria and even the Rohingya. Uighurs are grateful, but it is not enough because they did not hear in Erdogan’s speech a strong tone against China, an urgent call to the international community, a concrete demand or an initiative, even a sentence, to improve the situation.
Erdogan has not forgotten the Uighur issue and his presentation on a subject that China, an ally in many international arenas, does not want to listen to, has pleased not only Uighurs, but also the states and organizations that support justice and rights in the world, especially those that support the oppressed and the oppressed. That stance has shown Erdogan’s honesty and courage in his call for justice and rights.
It is known to everyone who pays attention to the issue and whose minds are consciences and alert that while blood flows in wars and conflicts, in the camps and prisons in East Turkestan — Xinjiang to China — blood is turning into pus and bodies are rotting. While mothers cry on battlefields, embracing their children’s corpse, Uighur mothers cannot access the remains of their children or even information about their deaths, and are thrown into prisons for crying or complaining. Bodies are counted on battlefields, but the bodies in the Uighur genocide are not, and China does not allow them to be.
The Uighur situation is much worse than current war zones. The problem deserves to be presented in a loud tone with urgent calls for action. We hope that our brother Turkey’s role in the international arena will be even more active, its stance even more strong and that its side will always be separate from that of the oppressors.
Rebiya Kadeer is a former president of the World Uyghur Congress. Kok Bayraq is a US-based Uighur observer.
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