A Uyghur exile administration has accused Turkey of deepening its security partnership with China at the cost of Turkic communities under Chinese rule, days after senior diplomats from the two countries held a fresh round of consultations.
What sparked the reaction
The East Turkistan Government in Exile hit out after Miao Deyu, China's Vice Foreign Minister, and Berris Ekinci, who holds the same title in Turkey, met on July 16. China's Foreign Ministry said afterward that the two sides had agreed to widen cooperation in areas such as law enforcement and security, while Ankara reaffirmed the One China position and pledged that Turkish soil would not be used to challenge what Beijing calls its sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.
Exile government calls it a betrayal
In a post on X, the exile administration, ETGIE, characterised the outreach as the newest episode in a long pattern of betrayal toward Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and other Turkic peoples, whom it says continue to endure what it calls genocide and colonial rule in East Turkistan. The group went further in a separate statement, describing Turkey's stance as a complete distortion of the facts and insisting that East Turkistan remains an occupied homeland rather than legitimate Chinese territory. It traces this claim back to the late 1940s, when it says Beijing's forces toppled the short-lived, independent East Turkistan Republic and imposed what it terms unlawful colonial control.
"This is not diplomacy. This is complicity in crime," the exile government said, arguing that Turkey's long-running security relationship with Beijing, which it dates to 1996, has enabled the surveillance, infiltration, criminalisation and suppression of the movement seeking East Turkistan's independence.
A separate meeting, a direct appeal
Alongside the criticism, ETGIE disclosed that its Foreign and Security Minister, Salih Hudayar, had separately met Turkish Vice Foreign Minister Levent Gumrukcu on the sidelines of an event organised by the Atlantic Council. During that conversation, Hudayar is said to have pressed Ankara to break off its security and intelligence cooperation with Beijing and instead speak up on East Turkistan's behalf on the world stage.
Allegations of forced labour and sterilisation
ETGIE pointed out that the criticism lands just as Turkey and China mark 55 years of diplomatic ties, a milestone it says obscures the reality facing millions of Uyghur and other Turkic individuals who, according to the group, are being held in detention, forced into labour, sterilised without consent, and torn apart from their families. The group also cited a Chinese law titled the "Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress," enacted in March 2026, which it argues gives legal cover to policies it brands as genocidal.
Beijing's response
China has repeatedly denied carrying out genocide or human rights violations in Xinjiang, maintaining that its measures in the region are meant to counter extremism, separatism and terrorism rather than target any ethnic community.
