Rethinking Ankara's response to the Uighur riots

By Mehmet Kalyoncu (Today's Zaman)
Updated: 2009-07-17 22:44

Editor's note: The article was published on July 15 on Turkish newspaper Today's Zaman. The following is an excerpt.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's historic stand off against Israeli President Shimon Peres was apparently a genuine expression of the world's collective frustration with Israeli practices against the Palestinians.

Mr. Erdogan's reaction mesmerized Muslims from Morocco to Indonesia and was even admired by some Westerners. As such, his growing popularity gave him a unique opportunity to create awareness among the world's leaders about inhumane practices perpetrated by certain states. The unfortunate incidents that recently took place in Urumqi, the capital of China's Xinjiang autonomous region, presented yet another sad example of such practices, thereby stressing the gravity of the problem.

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Riot in Urumqi

However, not only did Mr. Erdogan's uncalculated sentimental rhetoric risk his role as an objective supporter of the oppressed, including his ability to help the Uighurs, but Ankara's presumptuous attitude, demanding an explanation from the Chinese government regarding what happened in Urumqi, is likely to have cost Turkey a historic opportunity to assume a mediating role between the Chinese government and one of its major minorities as well. Turkey's prospects for such a role will further lessen if the so-called Mother Uighur, Rebiya Kadeer, who is considered by the Chinese government as a main instigator of the protests in Urumqi, visits Turkey. It is not difficult to imagine how the ultranationalists in the country would manipulate her visit to organize a series of public protests denouncing the Chinese government.

The Urumqi riots: Internal Chinese matter

Ankara's initial position vis-à-vis the outbreak of violent clashes between the Uighurs and the Han Chinese, and the Chinese security forces' suppression of the Uighur protests, could best be described as confusion followed by hesitation and a misguided reaction ... President Gül was wisely quick to stress that Turkey has always viewed the Uighurs as a means to improve friendship between China and Turkey.

Prime Minister Erdogan was in a relatively different and rather awkward position regarding the ongoing violence among the Uighurs, the Han Chinese and the Chinese security forces. He initially deplored the violence against the Uighurs and then described it as genocide-like ... He stated that Turkey would bring the issue to the UN Security Council, where China is a permanent member. He also announced that so-called Mother Uighur Kadeer, a millionaire businesswoman and American citizen living in Fairfax County, Virginia, would be granted a visa to visit Turkey.

Unless necessary measures are taken by Ankara, Turkish-Chinese relations are likely to be strained in the coming weeks.

Whether or not Kadeer is responsible for instigating the protests as the Chinese government argues, and regardless of whether what happened was really “genocide-like,” as the prime minister argued, the prime minister was wrong to say that for diplomatic reasons…

Mediation between the Uighurs and the Chinese government

The Turkish foreign minister's apparently impartial and yet non-neutral approach to the conflict was a move in the right direction. Ankara should maintain its impartiality between the Uighurs and the Chinese government by constantly stressing its belief in the conflict being an internal Chinese matter yet manifest its non-neutrality regarding the conflict by advocating the betterment of the socioeconomic and political conditions of the Uighurs in the China's Xinjiang autonomous region. Maintaining a neutral distance from all parties to the conflict, Ankara can position itself as an able and desirable mediator between the Chinese government and its Uighur minority.

As a potential mediator, Ankara should impartially analyze the conflict and point out that the satisfaction of the mutual interests of the Uighurs and the Chinese government does not necessitate independence for the Uighurs.

Following such a constructive course, both the Uighurs and the Chinese government would be better off. Certainly, Turkey would benefit tremendously from it, not only by bolstering its image as an international peacemaker, but also by avoiding the backlash that the otherwise sentimentally driven and critical stance against the Chinese government may cause.

Mehmet Kalyoncu is an international relations analyst and author of the book "A Civilian Response to Ethno-Religious Conflict: The Gülen Movement in Southeast Turkey"