By Shannon Tiezzi
Erodgan sought to move the China-Turkey relationship beyond recent tensions over Uyghur issues.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, arrived in China today and held meetings with Chinese officials, including Premier Li Keqiang and President Xi Jinping. It’s his first visit to China since assuming the presidency in August 2014, although he traveled to Beijing in 2012 while serving as prime minister.
As I noted previously, the trip faced an unwelcome complication thanks to issues related to ethnic Uyghurs in China. Anti-China protests broke out in Turkey earlier this month over reports that Uyghur celebrations of Ramadan were being restricted by the Chinese authorities. For its part, Beijing is angry that Turkish diplomats in Southeast Asia have reportedly been providing travel documents to Chinese Uyghurs, allowing them to more easily travel to Turkey. China is wary of Uyghurs seeking to carve out an independent state from China, and increasingly concerned about Uyghurs becoming radicalized and joining international terrorist groups.
In an oblique nod to those concerns, Erdogan assured Xi that Turkey opposes all forms of terrorism and also opposes any attempts to harm China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, according to Xinhua. Erdogan also stressed that Turkey itself is a victim of terrorism. He promised that Turkey will not allow its cooperation with China to “be affected by ill-minded forces,” according to Xinhua’s paraphrasing. Before leaving for China, Erdogan accused unnamed forces of hyping the Uyghur issue to undermine his trip.
Read the full story at The Diplomat