ISTANBUL, (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday genocide was being committed in China’s northwest province of Xinjiang and called on Chinese authorities to intervene to prevent more deaths.
“The incidents in China are, simply put, a genocide. There’s no point in interpreting this otherwise,” Erdogan said.
Rioting between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in Xinjiang has killed 156 people and wounded more than 1,000 in the worst ethnic violence in China in decades. Both Uighurs and the Han have claimed a higher death toll from the strife.
“We’re having trouble understanding how the Chinese government would remain a bystander to this,” Erdogan told reporters in comments broadcast live on NTV television. “We want the Chinese administration, with which our bilateral ties are continuously improving, to show sensitivity.”
Muslim Turkey shares linguistic and religious links with Uighurs, and Turkish nationalists see Xinjiang as the easternmost frontier of Turkic ethnicity. Thousands of Uighur immigrants live in Turkey.
