Merve Gül Aydoğan Ağlarcı
12 January 2022•Update: 12 January 2022
ANKARA
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing on Wednesday and addressed the situation of Uyghur Turks.
"Discussed our bilateral relations and regional issues with Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China," said Cavusoglu on Twitter.
Saying they have "evaluated economic cooperation opportunities," the minister also conveyed Turkiye's "views, expectations and sensitivities regarding the issues on our agenda, especially the Uyghur Turks."
Turkiye and the People's Republic of China established diplomatic relations in August 1971.
Recognizing China's right to fight terrorism, Ankara has urged Beijing to draw a fine line between terrorists and innocent people.
Turkiye also reinstates that the Chinese authorities are expected to respect universal human rights, including the religious freedom of Uyghur Turks and other Muslim groups.
In recent years, violations of the identity and culture of Uyghur Turks in China have been criticized on the international front.
A 2018 Human Rights Watch report detailed a Chinese government campaign of "mass arbitrary detention, torture, forced political indoctrination, and mass surveillance of Xinjiang's Muslims."
China, however, has repeatedly denied allegations that it is operating detention camps in its northwestern autonomous region, claiming instead that they are "re-educating" Uyghurs.
Bilateral, economic, and political relations between the two countries gained momentum in the 1980s. From the last decade onwards, the relations grew into a strategic cooperation level.
The trade volume between the two countries stood at around $24 billion as of 2020, primarily driven by the expanding export volume of Turkish agricultural and husbandry goods to China.
