These rumors have been circulating for several months. Little by little, several newspapers initially reported the arrest and expulsion of Uighur refugees by Ankara authorities. There is the case of Hocamniyazov Kurbancan, holder of an indefinite residence permit in Türkiye, arrested by the police upon his return from the pilgrimage to Mecca, shortly before the summer of 2024, and sent to a deportation center. The case of Mahemuti Anayeti and Aierken Abuduwaili, who were ordered by an administrative court in Istanbul to return directly to China in mid-March, violates the previous practice of expulsion via third countries. Their lawyers appealed. So many stories question Ankara’s openly welcoming policy towards Uighurs.
For years, the Islamo-nationalist government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented itself as the protector of members of China’s ethnic minority, considered “brothers” in the extended Muslim and Turkish family. In 2009, after the riots were bloodily suppressed, Türkiye’s head of state did not hesitate to condemn these actions. “a kind of genocide” and, in 2019, its foreign ministry described detaining Uighurs in “concentration camp” from “a shame for humanity”.
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