Turkey accused of complicity in China’s Uyghur genocide after hosting Beijing propaganda event

ANKARA (Turkey): The East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) vehemently denounced the Turkiye-China Media Forum that took place in Ankara.

Organised by Turkiye’s Directorate of Communications on Wednesday, the forum praised Beijing and advocated for increased media and strategic collaboration while purposefully ignoring the ongoing genocide being perpetrated against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in Occupied East Turkistan. This silence is not a form of diplomacy; it is complicity, they said.

By aligning its media network with the Chinese Communist Party, which is responsible for mass internment, forced labour, systematic sterilisation, religious persecution, and the ongoing eradication of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in Occupied East Turkistan, the AKP regime in Turkiye is not positioning itself as a neutral entity. Rather, it is actively facilitating China’s endeavour to obscure its atrocities and annihilate an entire nation.

This alleged media cooperation is not rooted in dialogue or diplomacy; it serves to legitimise genocide denial and assist Beijing in extending its authoritarian control over information well beyond its own illegally occupied regions.

Fahrettin Altun, Communications Director for the Turkish Presidency, addressed global crises yet neglected to mention the Uyghur Genocide in Occupied East Turkistan. This intentional omission is profoundly revealing. It reflects the AKP regime’s readiness to forsake justice for geopolitical advantages and its role in promoting the CCP’s propagandistic agenda.

“By standing beside the Chinese regime and promoting joint media efforts, the Turkish government is helping China erase an entire nation,” stated Dr Jurat Obul, Minister for Communications and Information of the East Turkistan Government in Exile. “This alleged collaboration functions merely as a platform for genocide denial. East Turkistan will not be silenced. We urge the Turkish populace and the international community to challenge this authoritarian alliance and uphold truth and justice.”

The ETGE cautions that Turkiye’s alignment with China is not only a betrayal of Turkic unity but also a strategic danger to global democratic ideals and regional stability. By reinforcing connections with Beijing in media, security, and technology, the AKP regime is assisting in amplifying the Chinese Communist Party’s influence throughout Eurasia, thereby undermining press freedom, civil society, and the integrity of truth-based information systems.

This burgeoning partnership between Turkiye and China exemplifies how authoritarian governments collaborate to suppress dissent and propagate disinformation, frequently masquerading as “strategic cooperation” or “dialogue”.

The East Turkistan Government in Exile calls on the international community to go beyond expressions of concern and undertake genuine measures to counteract China’s ongoing campaign of colonisation, genocide, and occupation in East Turkistan. This entails rejecting alliances that validate Beijing’s disinformation and actively supporting initiatives aimed at exposing and dismantling China’s global propaganda networks.

The population of East Turkistan cannot endure under Chinese occupation. Our very existence is at stake. Independence is not merely a vision; it is an imperative. We do not seek to accommodate tyranny; we aspire to fully restore our independence, freedom, and national dignity. Our entitlement to sovereignty and self-determination is non-negotiable, and no empire, regardless of its strength, can erase our nation or extinguish our determination to be free. (ANI)