The brutal atrocities experienced by the ethnic Muslim minorities are not unknown to the world. Numerous human rights administrations have accused the Xi Jinping administration of conducting gross Human rights violations against the minority community. Amidst all this, the Xi Jinping administration is facing one of the biggest challenges the Communist party faced in recent years. The people of China are taking to the streets in multiple cities to protest against the stringent “zero COVID policy”. Problems for the Xi Jinping administration became even worse when on December 10, the Uyghur activists in Turkey rose to the occasion to stand against the Chinese government on their own.

On December 9, ANI reported that Uyghur activists in Turkey and many Turkish political parties conducted a protest near the Chinese Consulate in the Sariyer district of Istanbul. The protesters in Turkey raised concerns over the Human rights violations in the Xinjiang region in China. ANI reported that around 120–130 people gathered near the Chinese consulate on Friday morning. The protesters which mostly comprised of women chanted religious verses and played the National anthems of both East Turkestan and Turkey outside the consulate. 

According to ANI, one of the representatives of the Uyghur NGO East Turkestan Human Rights, Abdul Selam Abdullah, urged international human rights groups to stand up for the Uyghur cause. He claimed that the Chinese government is killing people belonging to the community, under the pretext of imposing COVID-19 control measures. Earlier this year, numerous Human Rights groups claimed that China has detained “more than one million Uyghur in the past few years.” Concerns have been raised over the infamous, so-called “re-education camps”. 

Not the first time Uyghur activists in Turkey have conducted the protest

On December 9 it was not the first time that Uyghur activists staged a protest outside the Chinese consulate. Earlier this week, hundreds of protesters gathered at the same place and chanted slogans against the Chinese Communist Party. The protest at that time was led by East Turkestan Federation leader Habibullah Koseini. Urging the people of Turkey to come out and stand with the Uyghurs of China, he said, “We are ready to lay down on this stone road and we will continue to do that for another three days in front of the Consulate.”

The protest in Turkey for the Uyghur cause intensified in Turkey after it was reported that several Uyghurs died in a fire at a residential apartment in Urumqi city of China. The tragedy which occurred on November 24, was followed by around eight instances of protest demonstrations in Turkey, ANI reported. Earlier this year, BBC reported that it obtained a series of police files that described the existence of a shoot-to-kill policy in the so-called “re-education camps” in China.