Turkish, Chinese top diplomats discuss Uyghurs

ANKARA

The foreign ministers of Turkey and China discussed the situation of the Uyghur Turkic Muslim minority in China during a meeting under the 56th Munich Security Conference.

Mevlut Cavusoglu and Wang Yi met on Saturday, according to diplomatic sources.

China's Xinjiang region is home to around 10 million Uyghurs. The Turkic Muslim group, which makes up around 45% of Xinjiang’s population, has long accused China's authorities of cultural, religious and economic discrimination.

Up to a million people, or about 7% of the Muslim population in Xinjiang, have been incarcerated in an expanding network of "political re-education" camps, according to U.S. officials and UN experts.

In a report last September, the Human Rights Watch accused the Chinese government of a "systematic campaign of human rights violations" against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

According to the 117-page report, the Chinese government conducted "mass arbitrary detention, torture and mistreatment" of Uyghur Turks in the region.

Coronavirus

After the meeting, Cavusoglu said on Twitter that Turkey "extended again our condolences" to Wang of #China due to the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

"#Turkey is ready to provide additional medical supplies," he added.

The death toll in China from the coronavirus outbreak rose to 1,666, the country’s National Health Commission said Sunday.

Authorities said 68,500 confirmed cases have been reported, while in the last 24 hours, 142 people have died and almost 2,009 new cases have been detected.

The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak an international health emergency.