BEIJING (AP) – Abdullah Metseydi, a Uighur in Turkey, was ready for bed last month when he heard a commotion and then knocked on the door. ‘Police! Open the door! “
A dozen or more officers poured in, many of whom carried guns and carried the camouflage of Turkey’s anti-terror force. They asked if Metseydi had participated in any movements against China and threatened to deport him and his wife. They took him to a deportation facility, where he is now at the center of a political controversy.
Opposition lawmakers in Turkey accuse Ankara’s leaders of secretly selling Uighurs to China in exchange for coronavirus vaccinations. Tens of millions of vials with promising Chinese vaccinations have not yet been delivered. Meanwhile, Turkish police have raided about 50 Uighurs in deportation centers in recent months, lawyers say – a sharp rise from last year.
Although no hard evidence for a quid pro quo has yet emerged, these lawmakers and the Uighurs fear that Beijing will use the vaccines as leverage to pass an extradition treaty. The treaty was signed years ago, but was suddenly ratified by China in December, and Turkish lawmakers could submit it as early as this month.
Oeigoere says the bill, which was once law, could bring their ultimate life-threatening nightmare: deportation to a country to which they fled to avoid mass detention. More than a million Uighurs and other largely Muslim minorities have been swept into prisons and detention camps in China, which China calls an anti-terrorism measure, but the United States has declared a genocide.
“I’m terrified of being deported,” Melike, Metseydi’s wife, said in tears, refusing to name her for fear of retaliation. “I’m worried about my husband’s mental health.”
The suspicion of an agreement arose when the first consignment of Chinese vaccines was held for weeks in December. Officials blame issues for permits.
But even now, Yildirim Kaya, a lawmaker from Turkey’s largest opposition party, said China had delivered only a third of the 30 million doses it had promised by the end of January. Turkey is largely dependent on China’s Sinovac vaccine to immunize its population against the virus, which has infected about 2.5 million people and killed more than 26,000 people.
“Such a delay is not normal. We paid for these vaccines, ”said Kaya. “Does China chant Turkey?”
Kaya said he had formally asked the Turkish government about pressure from China, but had not yet received a response.
Both the Turkish and Chinese authorities insist that the extradition bill is not intended to target Uighurs for deportation. Chinese state media call such concerns ‘smear’, and Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin denies any connection between vaccines and the treaty.
“I think your speculation is unfounded,” Wang said during a press briefing on Thursday.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in December that the vaccination of the vaccine was not related to the issue of the Uighurs.
“We are not using the Uighurs for political purposes, but we are defending their human rights,” Cavusoglu said.
But although very few have been deported so far, the recent arrests have sent a chill through the estimated 50,000-strong Uighur community of Turkey. And in recent weeks, the Turkish ambassador to Beijing has praised China’s vaccinations, adding that Ankara values ’judicial cooperation’ with China. code, many Uighurs fear, for a possible suppression.
In the past, a small number of Uighurs traveled to Syria to train with militants. But most Uighurs in Turkey avoid jihadists and are worried that they are harming the Uighur cause.
Lawyers representing the detained Uighurs say Turkish police have no evidence of links to terrorist groups in most cases. Ankara law professor Ilyas Dogan believes the detention is politically motivated.
“They have no concrete evidence,” Dogan said. He represents six Uighurs in deportation centers, including Metseydi. “They are not serious.”
Even if the bill is ratified, Dogan doubts that there will be mass deportations, given the great sympathy of the public for the Uighurs in Turkey. But he believes the chances of individuals being deported will increase significantly.
Due to shared cultural ties, Turkey has long been a safe haven for the Uighurs, a Turkish group located in China’s Xinjiang region in the west. Turkish President Recep Erdogan has denounced China’s treatment of the Uighurs more than a decade ago as ‘genocide’.
That all changed with an attempted coup in Turkey in 2016, which led to a mass purge and alienated Erdogan from Western governments. Waiting to fill the gap was China, which is borrowing and investing billions in Turkey.
Signs of strong economic ties abound, large and small: an exporter with business in China has been appointed as Turkey’s ambassador to Beijing. A China-funded $ 1.7 billion coal plant is rising on the shores of the Mediterranean in Turkey. Istanbul’s airport receives the first certification of the Chinese friendly airport in the world, which set aside check-in counters to receive thousands of tourists from Shanghai and Beijing. And President Erdogan’s once fiery rhetoric has become dull and diplomatic, praising China’s leaders for their help.
China has also started requesting the extradition of many more Uighurs from Turkey. In one leaked 2016 extradition request first reported by Axios and independently obtained by The Associated Press, Chinese officials asked for the extradition of a former Uighur cellphone seller, accusing him of promoting the Islamic State terrorist group online. The seller was arrested but eventually released and removed from the charge.
Abdurehim Parac, a digestive poet in recent years, has twice detained, saying that even detention in Turkey is ‘hotel-like’ compared to the ‘hellish’ conditions he has endured in three years in a Chinese prison. Imim was eventually released after a judge cleared his name. But he struggles to sleep at night for fear that the extradition bill could be ratified, calling the pressure ‘unbearable’.
“Death awaits me in China,” he said.
Increasing fear is already leading to the influx of rental companies moving to Germany, the Netherlands and other European countries. Some are so desperate that they are even sneaking across borders illegally, said Ali Kutad, who fled China to Turkey in 2016.
“Turkey is our second homeland,” Kutad said. “We’re really scared.”
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Mehmet Guzel in Istanbul contributed to this report. Fraser from Ankara reported.