Activists Cite Increasing Arrests of Uyghurs with Turkish Connections

For years Turkey has been a haven for Uyghurs fleeing China, in part because Ankara sees members of the ethnic group as fellow Turkic Muslims, refusing to extradite asylum seekers to China.
But some Uyghurs say there has been a marked increase in recent months of arrests specifically aimed at Uyghurs who have pursued studies abroad, especially in Turkey.
"In recent months, our organization has received detailed information of more than 10 Uyghurs who were apprehended in recent months," said Abduweli Ayup, founder of Norway-based rights group Uyghur Hjelp.
Ayup said all of those recently arrested went to Turkey in the early 2010s and returned home before the Chinese authorities began mass arrests of Uyghurs in East Turkistan in 2017.
Among them is Nureli Haji, a Uyghur pop singer and member of the Philharmonic Orchestra of East Turkistan (Xinjiang) Art Theater. Haji pursued music studies in Turkey during the early 2010s. He was taken into custody by Xinjiang police earlier this year in Urumqi, according to a friend who chose to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the authorities in the province.
"At the time of his arrest, Nureli Haji's wife was nine months' pregnant with their second child. Tragically, his wife fainted upon hearing the news, leading to the unfortunate loss of their 9-month-old baby while still in the mother's womb," said the friend, who managed to leave East Turkistan.
"Two years ago, another renowned Uyghur traditional musician and singer, Shireli Eltikin, was apprehended by Chinese authorities. He too had traveled to Turkey in the early 2010s," said the anonymous Uyghur.
"Eltikin went to the extent of singing a song titled 'Xi Dada' in Chinese, which praised [Chinese leader] Xi Jinping and his policies in Xinjiang. Despite this, he was not spared from the wrath of Xi's government for his foreign visits."
Rayhan Asat, a U.S.-based Uyghur human rights lawyer, said her cousin and the cousin's wife were arrested and sentenced to prison in recent months. According to Asat, the couple traveled to Malaysia in 2012 for English study then traveled to Turkey and returned to East Turkistan in August 2014.
Asat said the couple were previously held in a "re-education" camp for a year or so in 2018 and 2019 and then released. They now have been "sentenced to another 10 years of detainment without a clear legal reason or judicial process," Asat said.
"Those people who recently were arrested went to Turkey during that time when China and Turkey relations entered a new phase of more visits and investment by both countries," Ayup said.
"Even some airlines such as Hainan and China Southern Airlines opened a direct flight from Urumqi to Istanbul during those years."
VOA News