Uighur women stage a march in Istanbul against China camps

BBC report had alleged rape, forced sterilisation of women

March 08, 2021 11:11 pm | Updated June 04, 2021 07:51 pm IST - Istanbul

In protest:  Muslim Uighur women staging an International Women’s Day march near China’s Consulate in Istanbul.

In protest: Muslim Uighur women staging an International Women’s Day march near China’s Consulate in Istanbul.

Several hundred Muslim Uighur women in Turkey staged an International Women’s Day march along the Bosphorus on Monday demanding the closure of mass incarceration camps in China’s Xinjiang region.

The protesters chanted “stop the genocide” and “close the camps” as they marched within a few hundred metre’s of China’s walled-off consulate in Istanbul.

“Rape is a crime against humanity,” said one poster, in reference to a BBC report alleging systemic rape and forced sterilisation of women at the camps — which China says are vocational training centres designed to counter extremism.

Rights groups believe at least one million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in camps spread out across the vast northwestern region.

Most of the demonstrators held up sky blue flags of Uighur separatists’ self-proclaimed state of East Turkestan. Uighurs speak a Turkic language and have cultural ties with Turkey that make it a favoured destination for avoiding persecution in Xinjiang.

But many in the 500,000-strong community fear that Ankara’s dependence on Chinese investments could jeapordise their future status in Turkey.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.