President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s emphasis on ‘Uyghur Turks’ while talking about the Organisation of Turkic States in his speech at the 79th General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in New York has drawn reactions from the Chinese public.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly, President Erdoğan said that the Organisation of Turkic States is gradually becoming a centre of attraction and that with the contributions of observer members Hungary and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the Organisation has become an exemplary model of cooperation.
Stating that they will further strengthen unity and solidarity as the Turkic world, Erdoğan said, “We are in close dialogue with China to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of Uighur Turks, with whom we have strong historical, cultural and human ties, within the framework of respecting China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. We are committed to taking the friendly relations we have established with all countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to a higher level.
The Chinese Academy responded to Erdoğan’s speech on relations with China in the context of the Uyghurs and the Organisation of Turkic States.
‘Violating the basic principles of international relations’
Prof. Dr Guo Changgang, director of the Institute of History at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and director of the Centre for Turkish Studies at Shanghai University, said Erdoğan’s remarks were a violation of China’s sovereignty and the basic principles of international relations.
Prof Guo Changgang said:
‘I believe that when Erdogan talks about ‘working to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of Uyghur Turks, with whom we have strong historical, cultural and humanitarian ties, through close dialogue with China and respecting China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity’, first of all, he is violating the basic principles of international relations. Secondly, it is an interference in the sovereignty of other Turkic-speaking countries, because he is acting as a representative of these countries as if he were their master. Thirdly, it is not only a lack of respect for China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, but also a gross form of interference. The Uyghurs are part of the larger Chinese family; if Erdogan believes that there is a historical cultural link between Turkish Turks and Chinese Uyghur Turks, this link should serve as a bridge for Turkish-Chinese friendship and a facilitator for Turkish-Chinese relations, not as a ‘weapon’ or a tool to increase bilateral tensions. I don’t understand how Erdogan, as a politician, can make such statements that lack international relations and political wisdom.’
‘One of the main reasons for this is probably Erdogan’s aforementioned logical stance,’ said Prof Guo, noting that since the establishment of a ‘strategic cooperation relationship’ between China and Türkiye in 2010, the relationship has not progressed further and has not reached the level of a ‘strategic partnership’.
‘I fully understand Türkiye’s sense of national pride, and as a historian, I also understand the ‘construction’ and ‘interpretation’ of Turkish history in the nation-building process of the Turkish Republic. Türkiye can claim in its history textbooks that the Sumerian civilisation, the Egyptian civilisation and later the Minoan-Mycenaean civilisation were based on the Turkic civilisation, and that the Turkic world once stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the western shores of the Pacific Ocean,’ Prof Guo said, adding that this should not be used as an excuse for Türkiye to interfere in the internal affairs of the countries concerned.
‘Against Türkiye’s national interests’
Commenting on Erdoğan’s speech, Prof. Hasan Ünal also criticised the ‘reduction of relations with China to the Uyghur agenda’.
‘The fact that President Erdoğan mentioned relations with China only in the context of the Uyghur issue in his speech to the UN General Assembly is one of the most important shortcomings of the speech,” said Prof Dr Hasan Ünal, ‘relations with China, the undisputed superpower of the multipolar world, constitute/should constitute the most important pillar of the multilateral foreign policy that Türkiye pursues or, more precisely, should pursue, and this issue can’t be reduced to the Uyghur issue’.
Ünal said, ‘In fact, relations with any state that hosts minorities/societies of Turkish origin cannot/should not be reduced to the situation of relations between the Turkish minorities and/or communities there and the states in question’ and gave the following example: ‘In Bulgaria, our neighbouring country, a large Turkish community lives in very good conditions and is an element of relations between Türkiye and Bulgaria. Their loyalty to the Bulgarian state is unquestionable. Türkiye should not interfere in the internal affairs of Bulgaria through the Turkish community or in the internal issues/discussions of the Turkish community. It contributes to the credibility of the Turkish community in Bulgaria by not interfering, except for some mistakes made in this direction in recent years’.
Noting that similar principles apply to the Uyghur issue, which is often raised in our relations with China, Ünal said: ‘The Uyghur issue is not and should not be a foreign policy issue for Türkiye. Relations between Ankara and Beijing should be decided directly between the two states on the basis of sovereignty and national interests. It cannot be reasonable and logical for Ankara to include an issue like the Uyghurs in this policy-making process. The Uyghurs will become part of the bridge formed by the good relations between Türkiye and China, and this is the right thing to do’.
‘Otherwise, problems and misunderstandings are inevitable,’ warned Ünal, adding that President Erdoğan’s remarks were ‘very open to misunderstanding’ and that ‘it is really difficult to understand why this sentence was inserted in the part of the speech that talks about the close cooperation between the countries of the Organisation of Turkic States. Because here, by presenting itself as the representative of the Uyghur Turks and even the Turkic world, Türkiye appears as a state trying to take away their rights, which they cannot get from China and which no sovereign state can accept’.
On the other hand, Ünal stressed that none of the member states of the Organisation of Turkic States has kept this issue on the agenda in its relations with China, and said that Türkiye’s raising of an issue that these states have not in any way made a foreign policy issue within the framework of cooperation among the members of the Organisation of Turkic States could raise suspicions among other states that ‘Ankara is trying to create a Uyghur agenda by using them’. Prof. Dr Hasan Ünal stated that Türkiye would not benefit from such an outcome in terms of its national interests and said: ‘It goes without saying that the ‘genocide of the Uyghurs’ allegations in Türkiye and around the world are purely American propaganda’.
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