Beijing ratified, on Saturday, December 26, the extradition agreement signed in 2017 with Ankara in order to speed up the return of some Uyghur Muslims who had taken refuge in Turkey, which is home to a large diaspora.
Although the Turkish parliament has not yet ratified this bilateral agreement, the initiative should cause concern among the Uyghur community in Turkey (estimated at 50,000 people).
The country has linguistic and cultural ties with the Uyghurs, who speak a Turkic language.
Ankara has long been one of the main defenders of their cause on the international scene, before being more discreet.
Refugees in Turkey
China has launched a policy of maximum surveillance of Uyghurs in its region of Xinjiang, in the northwest of the country, after numerous deadly attacks against civilians.
Beijing accuses the separatist and Islamist Uyghur movement.
According to foreign experts, the Chinese authorities have interned at least one million people, in particular Uyghurs, in "camps".
Beijing speaks of "vocational training centers" intended to help the population find a job and thus move them away from extremism.
Believing themselves to be victims of persecution, some Uyghurs fled to Turkey.
"The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has ratified" the Sino-Turkish "extradition treaty", the Chinese parliament said in a short statement on Saturday evening on its website.
However, the text provides for several grounds for refusal.
This is particularly the case if the State to which the extradition request is submitted considers it linked to a "political crime", if the person concerned is one of its citizens, or if the latter enjoys the right to extradite. 'asylum.
"Panic among the Uyghurs"
"This extradition treaty will cause panic among Uyghurs who fled China and do not yet have Turkish citizenship," reacted Dilxat Raxit, spokesperson for the Uyghur World Congress, an exile organization based in Germany.
"We call on the Turkish government (...) to prevent this treaty from becoming an instrument of persecution," he added, assuring that Beijing is exerting economic pressure on Turkey to ratify the treaty.
The question is delicate for Ankara, because the Turks are generally sensitive to the Uyghur cause.
Press articles accusing Turkey of already quietly expelling Uyghurs to China have provoked an outcry in public opinion.
Turkey is the only Muslim-majority country to have so far publicly denounced the treatment of Uyghurs.
The Turkish Foreign Minister thus described it in early 2019 as "shame on humanity".
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however, praised last year in China the policy pursued in Xinjiang, deeming people "happy" there, according to statements reported by the official China New Agency.
With AFP
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