Thousands take to streets all over Turkey to protest China’s alleged ban on Muslims fasting during Ramadan <\/p>\n
11:27, 02 July 2015 Thursday<\/p>\n
Protests broke out overnight all over Turkey with thousands of people taking to the streets to demand that China stop its alleged discrimination against Muslims.<\/p>\n
Demonstrators gathered in Istanbul, Izmir, Trabzon, Samsun, Bursa, and 20 other locations late Wednesday to chant and shout for justice for an area Turks call East Turkestan.<\/p>\n
In some places protests continued into the early hours of Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
The marches by several organizations and associations started around and after iftar – when Muslims break their daily fast – with people taking to the streets, holding placards and shouting slogans.<\/p>\n
In Tarabya in Istanbul – the home of the Chinese Consulate, and the largest protest – hundreds of members of the youth branch of the country’s dominant political force, the AK Party, gathered outside the building where they broke fast with water and Turkish bagels.<\/p>\n
Slogans such as “Long live hell for torturers”, “Silence is consent, wake up and raise your voice” and “We stand with East Turkestan” were shouted.<\/p>\n
The protests follow an official statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Tuesday that expressed “deep concern” about reports that Beijing has instilled a fasting ban on segments of its Muslim population.<\/p>\n
“It has been publicly heard with sorrow that there are reports of the fasting and fulfilling of religious duties by Uighur Turks being banned,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
It offered no explanation as to what it wanted China to do about the reported ban.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry said that her government had noted Turkey’s remarks and wanted clarification.<\/p>\n
“All ethnic groups in China are entitled to the freedom of religious belief under Chinese constitution,” Hua Chunying said through a translator.<\/p>\n
In mid-June, it was widely reported that China had banned fasting in parts of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region for Party members, civil servants, students and teachers.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Hua said that Beijing attached great importance to its developing relationship with Turkey.<\/p>\n
“We hope we can develop the bilateral relationship, based on a mutual respect of each other\u2019s major concerns and common interests,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We hope that the Turkish side will work together with us to maintain the smooth development of the bilateral relationship.”<\/p>\n
The “concern” expressed Wednesday night is reflective of the sentiment that many Turks have with regard to the Uighur issue.<\/p>\n
Many Turks refer to China\u2019s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region – home to many ethnic minority groups, including Turkic Uighur people — as East Turkestan.<\/p>\n
They believe that Uighur are among a number of Turkic tribes that inhabit the region, and consider it to be part of Central Asia, not China.<\/p>\n
Uighur, a Turkic group that makes up around 45 percent of the population of Xinjiang, has accused China of carrying out repressive policies that restrain their religious, commercial and cultural activities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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