Top activist lauds Turkey's approach to Uighur cause
Date
4/27/2016 5:52:55 AM
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) An exiled activist has highlighted Turkey’s role in the salvation of China's Muslim Uighur minority comparing the sanctuary she says it offers the Turkic ethnic people to its humanitarian work housing Syrian refugees.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview Monday Rebiya Kadeer the chair of the World Uighur Congress said that "dictators and radical groups in the Middle East" had forced people to flee west to places such as Turkey and Europe.
"Turkey has sheltered Uighur people who fled from Chinese oppression just like they took care of millions of refugees who fled from Syria" Kadeer said.
She thanked Turkey and said "its people had shared its bread with… the people of East Turkestan".
Many Turks refer to China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region -- home to many ethnic minority groups including the Turkic Uighur people -- as East Turkestan.
They believe that Uighur are among a number of Turkic tribes that inhabit the region and consider it to be part of Central Asia not China.
“Turkey and its people's sincerity and kindness to those who are in trouble gave us hope and made us happy" she said.
Kadeer said that during a recent meeting in Berlin the Congress had highlighted Uighur migration from Xinjiang to the international community especially Turkey.
"There are around 1500 Uighur people in Kayseri right now" she claimed. "We are thankful for the people of Kayseri for showing their brotherhood to the migrants."
Kadeer -- one of the most prominent Uighur dissident leaders -- claimed that China's government has been trying to label Uighur "terrorists" saying that they had only migrated "to fulfill religious duties".
"There has been a constant perception management by China and this is state terror" she stated.
In June 2015 it was widely reported that China had banned fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in parts of Xinjiang for Communist Party members civil servants students and teachers.
In 2014 the government issued warnings to employees and students not to fast during Ramadan .
It is also reported to have restricted men from having long beards clamped down on religious education activities and acted to control the entrances and exits to mosques.
In January 2015 the ban was extended to wearing burqas in public places.
Uighur a Turkic group that makes up around 45 percent of the population of Xinjiang has accused China of carrying out repressive policies that restrain their religious commercial and cultural activities.
By Erbil Basay
* Anadolu Agency Correspondent Satuk Bugra Kutlugun in Ankara contributed to this story
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