East Turkistanis condemn Turkish parliamentary speaker’s meeting with Chinese National Congress leadership

The East Turkistan Government in Exile and the global East Turkistani diaspora have condemned the meeting between Turkish Parliamentary Speaker Şentop and China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee Chairman Zhansu.

This latest meeting signals closer cooperation between Turkey and China which is already having severe negative consequences for the plight of East Turkistan and its people, the East Turkistan Government in Exile said in a press release.

During the said meeting, Turkish Parliamentary Speaker Şentop stated that Turkey has “ethnic, religious, and cultural ties with Uyghur Turks” and that Turkey's stance on this issue is “clear, sincere, and moral.”

He also added that Turkiye doesn’t want to instrumentalize the Uyghurs to “interfere in the internal affairs of the countries.”

“We would like to remind Parliamentary Speaker Şentop, the Turkish Grand National Assembly, the Government of Turkey, and all the people of Turkey once again that East Turkistan is the historical homeland of the Turkic peoples and that East Turkistan is an occupied country, not a so-called 'internal affairs' of China,” said Prime Minister Salih Hudayar of the East Turkistan Government in Exile.

“The damaging statements that Mr. Şentop made, regarding East Turkistan, to appease China not only harms East Turkistan and its plight, but it also causes deep mistrust of the Turkish Government by the global East Turkistani diaspora and the Turkic World,” he added.

The East Turkistani people have long been wary of Turkey's increasingly close relationship with China and have become increasingly skeptical of Turkey's sincerity towards East Turkistan and the Uyghurs.

In recent years under the Erodgan regime, Turkey has been suppressing East Turkistani activism and remains silent about China’s ongoing genocide of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan.

Cooperation and economic relations between Turkey and China and the progress of various joint projects in various fields were also discussed during the meeting between the officials.

Turkey's Parliamentary Speaker Şentop stated Turkiye wanted to increase its relationship with China, including bilateral trade, adding that Turkiye wants China’s investments in Turkey to increase.

“We ask Turkey not to betray East Turkistan,” Vice President Abdulahat Nur said.

“The only way for Turkey to prove that its stance on the East Turkistan issue is clear, sincere, and moral is to recognize that East Turkestan is the Occupied Country by recognizing China’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity against the Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan," he added.