Turkish FM hopes better China ties to help Uighurs
Turkey’s foreign minister said on Thursday that the better Turkey’s relations with the central government of China, the more contributions Turkey could make to Uighur region.
Ahmet Davutoglu said that on one hand Turkey had to protect rights of Uighur Turks, on the other hand it would not harm its relations with a global country.
“This will please not only China but also us, and we will help our Uighur brothers at the same time,” Davutoglu told reporters en route to China.
Minister Davutoglu said it was of symbolic importance to begin his visit to China from Kashgar and Urumchi in Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region.
Davutoglu is the first Turkish foreign minister ever to visit Kashgar.
“Here is the point we have reached in one year. The Chinese premier visited Turkey and I am now paying a visit to China. Both visits take place within a month,” Davutoglu told reporters.
Davutoglu said Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would visit China the following year.
“My visit to China is a part of an action plan we are implementing to solve the crisis with Chinese foreign minister after the Urumchi incidents,” he said.
Over 150 people were killed and approximately 1,000 others were injured in the riots which followed Sunday’s peaceful demonstrations protesting a fight between Uighur and Han Chinese workers at a toy factory late June. Two Uighur workers had been killed in the strife. Urumchi is in the Uighur Autonomous Region that has a population of over 21 million. Nearly 11 million Uighurs, Mongols and Huis live in the region.
Davutoglu said Turkey and China would set up a mechanism similar to strategic cooperation council it had established with some other countries, and thus two countries would work to better relations and close foreign trade deficit.
Turkey and China had agreed to implement a railway transportation project from Beijing to China, Davutoglu said.
Davutoglu said Turkey was planning to construct a 4,000-km railway within its borders and China was willing to take part in that project.
Turkey and China could also cooperate in Central Asia, and two countries were discussing a trilateral cooperation also including Pakistan, Davutoglu also said.
Davutoglu will be the guest his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi during his six-day formal visit to this country.