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As the likelihood of an armed intervention in Hong Kong is concentrating minds on Beijing\u2019s belligerent authoritarian regime, China\u2019s largely uncontested human rights violations against Muslims in Xinjiang should also come under stronger international scrutiny.<\/p>\n
Across the north-west China, up to one million Uighurs have been subjected to inhumane treatment in internment camps during the past two years. They have been forced to renounce their religious and cultural beliefs under extreme pressure and gross human rights violations.<\/p>\n
Satellite imagery and investigations<\/a> by journalists confirm the systematic nature of state repression in Xinjiang. The Chinese authorities claim the Uighurs are being \u201cre-educated\u201d in vocational training centres with the aim of reducing the spread of Islamist extremism.<\/p>\n Now, new reports indicate the scope of the campaign against China\u2019s Uighur population is growing.<\/p>\n As well as deliberately separating Muslim children from their families, Chinese authorities are now accused<\/a> of sterilising Uighur women at internment camps.<\/p>\n So far, it is only 18 European countries, including Britain, France and Germany, as well as New Zealand, Japan, Canada and Australia that have condemned these large-scale abuses.<\/p>\n 22 countries in total have issued a statement in July this year, calling China to stop arbitrary incarceration of Uighurs. In a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, they urged China to uphold its international obligations.<\/p>\n Turkey chose not to join them.<\/p>\n The United States, which withdrew from the United Nations\u2019 Human Rights Council last year, did not sign the letter, either.<\/p>\n Soon after, another letter from 37 countries praising China\u2019s \u201cremarkable achievements in the field of human rights\u201d and particularly its contribution to \u201cprotecting and promoting human rights through development,\u201d appeared.<\/p>\n Surprise, surprise! More than half of the signatories were members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and the rest included the usual suspects, such as Russia, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela.<\/p>\n Turkey not only stayed silent but seemed to be reversing its previous policy towards China\u2019s treatment of Turkic-Muslim Uighurs.<\/p>\n Following President Erdo\u011fan\u2019s visit to Beijing in July, Xinhua, the official news agency reported that \u201cTurkey firmly supported the One China policy, and it\u2019s a fact that residents of all ethnicities in China\u2019s Xinjiang were living happily amid China\u2019s development and prosperity\u201d.<\/p>\n The Times newspaper commented<\/a> that \u201cIf confirmed, Mr Erdogan\u2019s comments would represent a stark reversal by the Turkish government, which has previously said that Beijing\u2019s treatment of local Muslims in the far western Chinese region of Xinjiang was a \u201cgreat embarrassment for humanity\u201d.<\/p>\n