East Turkistanis condemn Turkish parliamentary Speaker's meeting with Chinese national Congress leadership

Istanbul [Turkey], August 25 (ANI): The East Turkistan Government in Exile and the global East Turkistani diaspora condemned the Turkish Parliamentary Speaker's meeting with the Chinese national Congress leaders and called Turkey not to betray them.
This came after the Turkish news agency, Anadolu Agency, reported that Turkey's Parliamentary Speaker Mustafa Sentop held a videoconference meeting with Li Zhanshu, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress, to discuss developing closer ties between China and Turkey.
This latest meeting signals closer cooperation between Turkey and China which is already having severe negative consequences for the plight of East Turkistan and its people, according to the statement released by the East Turkistan Government-in-exile.
Cooperation and economic relations between Turkey and China and the progress of various joint projects in various fields were also discussed during the meeting between the officials.
Vice President of East Turkistan Government-in-exile, Abdulahat Nur said, "We ask Turkey not to betray East Turkistan."
"The only way for Turkey to prove that its stance on the East Turkistan issue is clear, sincere and moral is to recognize that East Turkestan is the Occupied Country by recognizing China's ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity against the Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan," he said as quoted by the statement.
The East Turkistani people have long been wary of Turkey's increasingly close relationship with China and have become increasingly sceptical of Turkey's sincerity towards East Turkistan and the Uyghurs. In recent years, under the Erodgan regime, Turkey has been suppressing East Turkistani activism and remains silent about China's ongoing genocide of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan, the statement reads.
Turkish Parliamentary Speaker Sentop stated that Turkiye has "ethnic, religious, and cultural ties with Uyghur Turks" and that Turkiye's stance on this issue is "clear, sincere, and moral." He also added that Turkey doesn't want to instrumentalize the Uyghurs to "interfere in the internal affairs of the countries."
"We would like to remind Sentop, the Turkish Grand National Assembly, the Government of Turkey and all the people of Turkey once again that East Turkistan is the historical homeland of the Turkic peoples and that East Turkistan is an occupied country, not a so-called "internal affairs" of China," said Prime Minister Salih Hudayar of the East Turkistan Government in Exile.
"The damaging statements that Sentop made, regarding East Turkistan, to appease China not only harms East Turkistan and its plight, but it also causes deep mistrust of the Turkish Government by the global East Turkistani diaspora and the Turkic World," he added.
Turkiye's Parliamentary Speaker Sentop stated Turkiye wanted to increase its relationship with China, including bilateral trade, adding that Turkiye wants China's investments in Turkiye to increase. (ANI)