Washington, July 18 (IANS) The East Turkistan Government-in-Exile (ETGE) strongly condemned the recent engagement between China and Turkey, alleging that the growing cooperation has emboldened Beijing to intensify “colonial occupation” and “genocide” with impunity in East Turkistan, also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The remarks came following political consultations between Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Miao Deyu and Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Berris Ekinci in Beijing on July 16.

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, during the talks, Beijing called for deeper “law enforcement and security” cooperation, while Ankara reaffirmed the “one-China principle” and vowed not to allow Turkish territory to be used against China’s claimed “sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.”

Expressing strong opposition to the consultations, the ETGE said: “ This is the latest chapter in a decades-long betrayal of the Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples suffering under China’s genocide and colonial occupation of East Turkistan.”

It further said that “Ankara’s framing is a grotesque inversion of the truth”, asserting that the Xinjiang region is “an occupied country”.

Stressing that "this is not diplomacy" but "complicity", the exiled authorities said, "For nearly three decades, Turkey has helped Beijing monitor, infiltrate, co-opt, criminalise, and suppress East Turkistan’s national independence movement. This collaboration has enabled Beijing to intensify its colonial occupation and genocide with impunity."

Recalling his meeting with Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Levent Gumrukçu, ETGE Foreign Minister Salih Hudayar said he had urged Turkey to be "a voice for East Turkistan" and take a stand against what he described as China's colonial occupation and genocide.

"Instead, Ankara continues deepening cooperation with a genocidal empire bent on eradicating Turkic culture, identity, and existence in East Turkistan," Hudayar said.

The ETGE alleged that such cooperation makes Turkey a proxy for “Beijing’s transnational repression and complicit in China’s ongoing genocide against the Turkic peoples” of Xinjiang.

“It allows China to co-opt diaspora organisations, coerce East Turkistani refugees, and suppress East Turkistan’s national independence movement globally. By helping Beijing silence resistance abroad, Ankara pushes East Turkistan toward irreversible demographic, cultural, and national destruction,” it added.

The ETGE called on the international community to condemn Ankara’s complicity in Beijing’s transnational repression, take concrete action to end the “ongoing genocide”, and support “East Turkistan’s decolonisation and restoration of national independence” in accordance with its people’s inalienable right to national self-determination.

--IANS

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