Xinjiang update

Recent Events
In the days since the July 5 riots, Han Chinese have retaliated. Many attacked Uighurs with makeshift weapons. They did not disperse even when security forces sent tear gas their way. Uighur women have rioted, claiming their husbands and sons were illegally arrested. Small groups have protested outside hospitals, demanding the release of victims' bodies. A group of about 200 forced itself into one of Urumqi's major mosques on Friday, July 10, after police shut down all mosques for the day. Yesterday, police fired on a group of Uighurs carrying weapons, killing two.

International Reactions
There have been many protests at Chinese embassies around the world, mainly consisting of exiled Uighurs. Uighurs in Munich and Amsterdam vandalized Chinese embassies, and Islamic groups in Jakarta clashed with police while protesting in support of Uighurs. Few governments have reacted strongly to the recent unrest in western China, however. The UN, US, and most countries have simply called for restraint on both sides. Russia has come out strongly in defense of Beijing's actions. Almost no government has condemned Beijing, unlike during unrest in Tibet last year. Even Muslim countries have kept quiet. There is one major exception: Turkey. President Erdogan in a July 10 televised address labeled China's actions in Xinjiang a "genocide". That is quite the statement for a country that has refused to admit that its massacre of Armenians a century ago was genocide. It's also a pretty risky statement for a country in conflict with its own ethnic minority, the Kurds. Turkey also said that the Uighurs are Turkey's brethren, and that Ankara would use its temporary seat on the UN Security Council to push for international condemnation of the events (this would not accomplish much, since China and Russia have veto power- but never mind). Erdogan also said that Ankara would grant a visa to Rebiya Kadeer, leader of the World Uyghur Congress, who had previously been denied visas.

Turkey's harsh words towards China represent a major change in its foreign policy. Turkey has never supported Uighur separatism, and just last week, Turkey's President Abdullah Gul visited Urumqi and called it a "friendship bridge between Turkey and China". Even when the riots first broke out, Ankara issued a mild statement extending condolences to "the people of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in particular and to the people of China in general," and that necessary actions should be taken to make sure such violence does not happen again.

The shift is due to domestic politics. NGOs and religious groups have called for a boycott of Chinese goods. Many criticized Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for its silence on the Uighur issue. The AKP's base is religious and rural. Domestic politics were also behind Ankara's uncharacteristically strong condemnation of Israel's actions in Gaza last year. Turkey's increasingly Islamic rhetoric have marginally helped its relations with the Arab world, though it has fallen on deaf ears in Central Asia.