Mon 24 January 2022:
Dozens of activists from China’s Uighur Muslim ethnic group marched in Istanbul, asking for a boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing next month in protest of the Chinese government’s treatment of the minority.
Protesters gathered outside the Turkish Olympic Committee building in Istanbul on Sunday, carrying blue-and-white flags of the East Turkestan independence movement, which Beijing claims is threatening the stability of its far western region of Xinjiang.
“China, stop the genocide; China, close the camps,” chanted the demonstrators, some holding up a banner reading “Stop Genocide Olympics”.
“China does not have the right to host the Olympics while committing all the torture, cruelty and genocide against Uighurs,” said Uighur housewife Munevver Ozuygur, who said she had relatives in camps in China.
Turkey is home to 50,000 Uighurs with whom Turks have ethnic, religious, and linguistic ties, making it the largest Uighur diaspora outside of Central Asia.
Last month, 19 Uighurs filed a criminal complaint against Chinese authorities with a Turkish prosecutor, accusing them of genocide, torture, rape, and crimes against humanity.
Turkish Uighurs have criticized Ankara’s policy to China.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said this month he conveyed Turkey’s “views, expectations and sensitivities” over the Uighurs to his Chinese counterpart during talks in Beijing.
“The world, Turkic countries and Islamic countries need to wake up. China is committing genocide right now,” said protester Abdurrahman Taymaz.
“They are deceiving people. We want these Olympic Games to be boycotted as soon as possible.”
More than a million people, mostly from the Uighur and other Muslim minorities, have been held in Xinjiang camps in recent years, according to UN experts and rights groups.
Beijing rejects genocide and the existence of forced labor camps in Xinjiang, and has accused Uighurs of being paid liars for testifying about circumstances in the northwestern region.
After initially denying their existence, China later defended the Xinjiang camps as vocational training centers intended at diminishing the attraction of “extremism.”
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES | FILE PHOTO
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