China Tuesday has demanded that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan retract remarks that China was committing genocide in China’s Muslim region of Xinjiang, where rioting left 184 people dead since July 5.
Last Friday, Mr. Erdogan told NTV television, “The incidents in China are, simply put, genocide. There’s no point in interpreting this otherwise.” He continued in calling on Chinese authorities to intervene to prevent more killings.
The Chinese position on Erdogan’s remarks appeared four days later in an editorial titled “Don’t Twist Facts,” printed in the English language China Daily.
The newspaper advised Erdogan to “take back his remarks…which constitute interference in China’s internal affairs.” It described his statement as “irresponsible and groundless.”
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told his Turkish counterpart by telephone on Sunday the riots were a serious crime orchestrated by the “three evil forces… extremism, separatism and terrorism,” state news agency Xinhua reported.
Thousands of Uighurs live in Turkey where nationalists consider Xinjiang the easternmost frontier of Turkish ethnicity.
