Turkey attacks China ‘genocide’

In 1948, the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defined genocide as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”  This definition comes from Wikipedia online.  I have presented this definition in light of the news events happening in China’s Xinjian region.  This news story comes from the BBC news. Genocide of any distinct group whether it be Kurds, Armenians, Rwanda’s Tutsis, Jews to name a few, is  indeed, a crime against humanity and democracy.

“Turkey’s prime minister has described ethnic violence in China’s Xinjiang region as “a kind of genocide”.
“There is no other way of commenting on this event,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

The death toll from the violence there has now risen from 156 to 184, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reports. More than 1,000 people were injured.  Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, shares linguistic and religious links with the Uighurs in China’s western-most region.

“The event taking place in China is a kind of genocide,” Mr Erdogan told reporters in Turkey’s capital, Ankara.
“There are atrocities there, hundreds of people have been killed and 1,000 hurt. We have difficulty understanding how China’s leadership can remain a spectator in the face of these events.”

The Turkish premier also urged Beijing to “address the question of human rights and do what is necessary to prosecute the guilty”.

Mr Erdogan’s comments came a day after Turkish Trade and Industry Minister Nihat Ergun urged Turks to boycott Chinese goods. But it said that of the 184 people who died, 137 were Han Chinese.

Earlier on Friday, the Chinese authorities reimposed a night-time curfew in Urumqi. The curfew had been suspended for two days after officials said they had the city under control. Mosques in the city were ordered to remain closed on Friday and notices were posted instructing people to stay at home to worship.

But at least two opened after crowds of Uighurs gathered outside and demanded to be allowed in to pray on the holiest day of the week in Islam.

“We decided to open the mosque because so many people had gathered. We did not want an incident,” a policeman outside the White Mosque in a Uighur neighbourhood told the AP news agency.

After the prayers, riot police punched and kicked a small group of Uighurs protesters, who demanded the release of men detained after last Sunday’s violence, the BBC’s Quentin Sommerville says.

Meanwhile, the city’s main bus station was reported to be crowded with people trying to escape the unrest.

The violence began on Sunday when a Uighur rally to protest against a deadly brawl between Uighurs and Han Chinese several weeks ago in a toy factory in southern Guangdong province turned violent.

Tensions have been growing in Xinjiang for many years, as Han migrants have poured into the region, where the Uighur minority is concentrated.

Many Uighurs feel economic growth has bypassed them and complain of discrimination and diminished opportunities.”

Read the whole story here.

Kurds protest Turkish PM’s visit

2 Nov 2008, 2103 hrs IST, AFP

DIYARBAKIR: Turkish police clashed for a second day on Sunday with thousands of Kurds protesting a visit by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the country’s restive Kurdish-majority southeast.

Fighting erupted when some 3,000 demonstrators – mostly supporters of the country’s main Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party (DTP) – tempted to stage a march in the town of Yuksekova, ignoring police orders to disperse.

Riot police fired shots in the air and used tear gas and water cannon against the demonstrators who pelted officers with stones, the report said.

The unrest came as Erdogan pledged unity and promised fresh steps to develop the impoverished region during a ceremony to inaugurate a hospital in Yuksekova before moving on to the nearby city of Hakkari.

“Let us protect our peace and stand united. If we increase our solidarity, we will also increase our development,” he said.

Erdogan underlined that his government would carry on with a reform drive to earn European Union membership for Turkey, which has resulted in broader Kurdish cultural freedoms.

In Hakkari, demonstrators stoned a convoy carrying officials from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and press members at the entrance of the city. No one was hurt. The prime minister arrived in a helicopter.

Police also quashed some small-scale demonstrations in the city where shops remained closed – a traditional Kurdish method of protest against the government.

Erdogan’s visit came a day after a suspected bomb blast rocked the AKP headquarters in Hakkari on Saturday and he was greeted by clashes between Kurds and police in the eastern city of Van.

There have been a series of Kurdish demonstrations across the country since last month as the military increased its operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) who has waged a 24-year bloody campaign for self-rule.

Kurds have also been outraged over allegations that PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan — considered a hero by many Kurds – was mistreated and threatened with death in a Turkish prison where he is serving a life sentence in solitary confinement.

Erdogan on Sunday firmly denied the allegations, dismissing them as a ploy to drain support from the ruling party ahead of local elections
next year.

“There is no mistreatment, it is all a lie…They are making up excuses as the elections draw near,” he charged.