Uighur Turks who have no news of their relatives living in East Turkestan organized a protest on Friday outside the Chinese embassy in Turkey, reports the Anadolu Agency.
They carried banners that read: “Where is my family?” and “Free my family.”
The group’s spokesman, Mirzehmet Ilyasoglu, called on the world to speak out against these crimes against humanity.
He added that another protest they started before the Chinese Consulate General in Istanbul has entered its 46th day.
Hanefi Sinan, head of the Ankara branch of the Turkish Municipal Employees’ Union and Special Administration, who was at the protest, said they could not remain silent in the face of oppression no matter where in the world it occurs.
In China’s Xinjiang region [Turquestán Oriental] about 10 million Uyghurs live. The Turkish Muslim group, which makes up about 45% of Xinjiang’s population, has long accused the Chinese authorities of cultural, religious and economic discrimination.
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China has stepped up its restrictions in the region in the past two years, banning men from growing beards and women from wearing veils and introducing what many experts consider the world’s most comprehensive electronic surveillance program, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Up to one million people, or about 7% of Xinjiang’s Muslim population, have been incarcerated in a growing network of “political re-education” camps, according to US officials and UN experts.
A 2018 Human Rights Watch report detailed a Chinese government campaign of “mass arbitrary detention, torture, forced political indoctrination, and mass surveillance of Muslims in Xinjiang.”
China, however, has repeatedly denied allegations that it is operating detention camps in its northwest autonomous region, stating instead that they are “re-educating” Uighurs.
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