Istanbul.. A stand in solidarity with the Uyghur Muslims

On Sunday, Istanbul witnessed a solidarity stand as part of the global campaign “Stop Genocide Immediately” to draw attention to the suffering of Uyghur Muslims in the East Turkestan region of China.

In this context, the participants gathered in the solidarity vigil in Siraj Khaneh Park in Al-Fateh region, at the invitation of the New Generation Movement of East Turkestan and international organizations specialized in the issues of Uyghur Muslims.

The participants raised the flags of Turkey and the East Turkestan region, as well as banners that read “Stop the genocide immediately,” chanting slogans denouncing the suffering of Uyghur Muslims.

In a statement read out on behalf of the participants in the solidarity stand, Abdusalam Taklimagan, head of the New Generation Movement, said that they are gathering with more than 100 Islamic organizations participating in the global campaign under the slogan “Rise up for the Uyghurs.”

He added that hundreds of academics and activists are participating in the aforementioned global campaign.

“Tiklimagan” pointed out that the Uyghur Muslims have been subjected to human rights violations over the past 70 years.

He stressed the need to hold those responsible for human rights crimes in East Turkestan accountable.

The solidarity stand concluded with the recitation of the statement in Arabic and English.

China has controlled East Turkestan region since 1949, which is the home of the Turkic Muslim Uyghur minority, and calls it “Xinjiang”, meaning “the new frontier”.

Official statistics indicate that there are 30 million Muslims in the country, 23 million of whom are Uyghurs, while unofficial reports confirm that the number of Muslims is around 100 million.

In its annual human rights report for 2019, the US State Department accused China of holding Muslims in detention centers to erase their religious and ethnic identity and forcing them to work as forced labour.

However, China usually says that the centers that the international community describes as “concentration camps” are “vocational training centers” and aim to “clear the minds of those held in them of extremist ideas.”