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By Hebibulla Izchi of Uyghur Edition of Uyghur Times
(Translated by English team of Uyghur Times)
On January 11, Turkey’s Gelecek Party held a large-scale press conference in the capital Ankara. They demanded the Turkish government and the ruling party boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics, Uyghur Times – Uyghur language edition reports.
The “Future Party” had sent an invitation letter before the press conference to all parties to attend the event. However, Turkey’s largest ruling party, the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) did not respond or send representatives. This move greatly surprised and disappointed many Uyghurs living in Turkey.
The host of the event, Ms. Serap Yazıcı, said in her opening speech: “For a long time, the Chinese regime has used various means to persecute its citizens, especially the Uyghurs. They are using terrifying means to oppress them. We have heard horrific testimonies from the escapees of the concentration camps.
The communist regime abuses our fellow Muslims and Turkic people. Therefore, we strongly oppose the Winter Olympics in Beijing. At the same time, we also send our message to the Turkish leadership and the ruling party to call for immediate action to boycott the Winter Olympics!
So far, the United States, Canada, and other countries and regions have implemented diplomatic boycotts and other means to express their dissatisfaction with the Chinese government. According to the Future Party, China is not qualified to hold the Olympics!
So far, the Turkish government has not directly challenged the Chinese communist regime about its persecution of Uyghurs. The Turkish government has been promising to send a delegation to East Turkistan to inspect the condition of the Uyghurs, but so far, they have not done so.