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China hits out at Turkey 'genocide' comments By Kathrin Hille in Beijing and Delphine Strauss in Ankara Published: July 14 2009 20:22 | Last updated: July 14 2009 20:22 Beijing lashed out at Ankara on Tuesday after the Turkish prime minister said last week that its treatment of the Uighur minority in Xinjiang was "like genocide". The Chinese foreign ministry said it hoped "our Muslim brothers can realise the truth" while the state-run China Daily attacked the remarks by Recep Tayyip Erdogan as "irresponsible and groundless". EDITOR'S CHOICE Xinjiang riots damage Sino-Turkish ties - Jul-14 In depth: China's Uighurs - Jul-10 Analysis: Trouble at the margin - Jul-10 Police kill two Uighurs in Urumqi - Jul-13 Turkey has close ethnic ties with Uighurs, a mostly Muslim Turkic minority in the north-western Chinese region of Xinjiang. It also has a nationalist lobby that views "East Turkestan" as an ancestral homeland. In a sign that the unrest in Xinjiang could trigger a dangerous backlash from the Muslim world, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an Algerian Islamist group affiliated to al-Qaeda, has also threatened attacks on Chinese interests. The diplomatic row between China and Turkey threatens newly forged business ties between the two only weeks after Abdullah Gul, the Turkish President, visited China - including a stop in Urumqi, the Xinjiang capital - with a delegation that signed trade deals worth $3bn. Turkey's foreign ministry said there was no question of supporting separatism but it was "only natural that we would be interested in the destiny of these people and their well-being". China has also come under fire from other countries after clashes between Uighurs and Han, the main Chinese ethnic group, which officials say killed 184 people. A senior cleric in Iran, which enjoys close military and energy ties with China, accused Beijing of "suppressing" the minority. "It is true that the Chinese government and its people have close economic and political ties with us and other Islamic countries, but this is no reason for them to horribly suppress our Muslim brothers and sisters," said Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi in a statement to the ISNA news agency. Indonesia, the world's largest majority Muslim nation, saw small-scale rallies by Islamist groups on Monday demanding that the government put pressure China to stop violence against Muslims in Xinjiang. "This is a new problem for China, which is now fighting on two fronts in its foreign policy on this issue," said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, head of government and international studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. The expressions of concern from several neighbouring countries did not catch Beijing unawares. Immediately after the Uighur riot on July 5 and the ensuing security crackdown, the Chinese government asked a number of countries it views as friends to show their support by condemning the violence. Pakistan and Indonesia have been among those who complied. At the weekend, Indonesia's ambassador to Beijing reiterated that his country saw the unrest as an internal affair of China. The Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which border Xinjiang and share cultural and ethnic roots with the Uighurs, were also quick to reassure Beijing that they would not interfere. But public opinion in at least some of these countries is a different matter ++++ http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=china-blasts-turkish-boycott-call-2009-07-15 China blasts Turkish boycott call Wednesday, July 15, 2009 BEIJING - AFP China on Wednesday blasted a Turkish call for a boycott of Chinese goods as "irresponsible," a day after it angrily denounced accusations from Turkey that it was guilty of genocide. Photo: Hakan Göktepe - AA Turkish Trade Minister Nihat Ergün last week called on consumers not to buy goods from China, in protest to unrest in China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region involving Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs on July 5 that left more than 190 people dead. Chinese commerce ministry spokesman Yao Jian on Wednesday hit out at Ergün's comments, saying he was confident the boycott would not be implemented. "Some people in some countries made some irresponsible comments on imports of Chinese products after the Xinjiang incident," Yao told reporters, when asked about the boycott call. "But I don't think this means the country will introduce this policy." Yao said Turkish leaders "had very good communications" with China, adding he believed the tension "will subside soon." His comments came a day after Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang blasted weekend remarks made by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said the plight of China's Uighurs amounted to "a kind of genocide." "In 1949, the population of Uighurs [in Xinjiang] was 3.29 million. At present, the Uighur population there is nearly 10 million, or three times more than 60 years ago. What kind of ethnic genocide is this?" Qin said Tuesday. Turkey has repeatedly expressed concern about recent unrest in Xinjiang, China's northwest region that is home to 8 million Uighurs who have long said they suffer repression and discrimination under Chinese rule. Turkey says it supports China's sovereignty over Xinjiang but retains strong cultural links with the Muslim Uighurs because of a shared language, culture and history. Several exiled Uighurs live in Turkey where they have been supported by nationalist groups. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
