As long as the collision between China’s agenda in Xinjiang and Pan-Turkic solidarity forms an inherent limit to Sino-Turkish cooperation, Turkey will shy away from China's Belt-and-Road initiative.
Turkey’s recent stern rebuke of China’s treatment of its Turkic Muslim, Uyghur minority constitutes a stunning policy reversal by Ankara after more than three years of accommodating Beijing’s policies in Xinjiang province. The AKP government’s belated condemnation of China’s internment camps in Xinjiang was prompted by an erroneous claim of the death in detention of a revered performer of Uyghur traditional music. The timing was also motivated by the mounting pressure ahead of Turkey’s March 31 elections from growing Turkish nationalist outrage over the Uyghurs’ plight. Ankara’s reversion to the nationalist line on Xinjiang reveals the inherent limit of Sino-Turkish cooperation, as Turkish nationalism’s core element of Pan-Turkic solidarity poses an enduring threat to Beijing’s vital interests in Xinjiang and its strategic ambitions across Turkic Central Asia.
Background
On February 9, 2019, Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement harshly criticizing China’s policy toward the ethnically Turkic Uyghur population in China’s Xinjiang Province, reversing a three-year policy of conciliation toward Beijing on the Uyghur issue. Belatedly castigating China’s October 2017 adoption of its “Sinification of All Religions and Beliefs” policy as a program for “eliminating the ethnic, religious and cultural identities of the Uyghur Turks,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson declared, “It is no longer a secret that more than one million Uyghur Turks incurring arbitrary arrests are subjected to torture and political brainwashing in internment camps and prisons.” Decrying Beijing’s actions as a “great shame for humanity,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry officially called upon “on the international community and the secretary-general of the United Nations to take effective measures in order to bring to an end this human tragedy in Xinjiang.”
The precipitating event for the astounding policy turn-around seems to be the reported death of Abdurehim Heyit, who was imprisoned by Chinese authorities. A revered poet and performer of traditional Uyghur music, Heyit is a symbol of the struggle to preserve the Uyghur cultural heritage. A bridge between Uyghur and Turkish cultures, Heyit has a large following in Turkey, where he performed just prior to his 2017 arrest. The foreign ministry explicitly mentioned the singer by name and its sorrow over Heyit’s death.
However, to Turkey’s embarrassment, China Radio International’s Turkish-language service released a video dated February 10, 2019, in which a man appearing to be Abdurehim Heyit speaks in the Uyghur language and states that he is in “good health.”
In her February 11 press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chun attempted to undermine the legitimacy of Ankara’s protest over Beijing’s treatment of Xinjiang’s Uyghur population. Focusing on the erroneous claim that Heyit died in Chinese custody, she declared, “Turkey made groundless accusations against China based on the absurd lie of portraying the living as dead. This is extremely wrong and irresponsible, and we firmly oppose it.”
The following day the Chinese government issued a travel advisory admonishing its citizens against traveling to Turkey. China’s Ankara Embassy warned Chinese residents and tourists in Turkey to “be wary and pay attention to their personal safety.” While a legitimate concern, given the past history of popular anti-Chinese violence in Turkey, including attacks on travelers from other East Asian nations mistaken for being Chinese, Beijing’s advisory targets Turkey’s tourism industry at a time when the country’s economy is fragile. While the overall impact to Turkey’s tourism will likely be small, the advisory also serves as a warning shot from Beijing that is prepared to retaliate economically for any further Turkish action.
No comments:
Post a Comment