China, Turkey: friends or foes?

Whenever President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gets angry with the European Union over delays on Turkey’s accession, he frequently threatens to head to the Shanghai Five. Turkey is currently trying to improve its relations with China by planning to waive visa requirements for Chinese visitors in 2016. However, Turkey is still unable to cope with the issue of East Turkestan and the plight of the area's Uighur population, oppressed for decades by China’s assimilation policies. Therefore, China’s Xingjian Uighur Autonomous Region, or as Turkish nationalists longingly call it, East Turkestan, is used to easily excite Turkish opinion. 

The latest provocations of the Turkish public was by pro-government papers like Aksam with the headline, “Chinese police massacre 18 fasting Uighurs”; daily Sabah with the headline, “Massacred for fasting: 18 killed”; and daily Takvim with the headline, “Uighurs forced to drink alcohol on Ramadan.” Internet sites and social media also contributed by manipulating the special ambiance of Ramadan with reports claiming that China banned fasting for civil servants, students and teachers in East Turkestan, ordering restaurants to stay open during fasting hours and markets to sell alcoholic drinks.

Several civil society organizations of the nationalist ideology organized anti-China protests in Turkey. In Istanbul’s top tourism district of Sultanahmet, a group of nationalists assaulted Korean tourists they mistook for Chinese.

Also in Istanbul, the windows of a Chinese restaurant where Uighurs work were smashed. Chinese flags were burned and an effigy of Mao was hanged at Balikesir. When the incidents continued, the Chinese Foreign Ministry felt compelled to issue a travel warning to its citizens going to Turkey. The Chinese ministry noted that Uighurs were enjoying religious freedoms and a right to live and work in peace within a constitutional framework.