Turkey Uighurs face threat of deportation

Ankara accused of secretly selling out ethnic minority in exchange for delayed Chinese coronavirus vaccines

BEIJING — Abdullah Metseydi, a Uighur in Turkey, was readying for bed last month when he heard commotion, then pounding on the door. “Police! Open the door!”

A dozen or more officers poured in, many bearing guns and wearing the camouflage of Turkey’s anti-terror force. They asked if Metseydi had participated in any movements against China and threatened to deport him and his wife. They took him to a deportation facility, where he now sits at the centre of a brewing political controversy.

Opposition legislators in Turkey are accusing Ankara’s leaders of secretly selling out Uighurs to China in exchange for coronavirus vaccines. Tens of millions of vials of promised Chinese vaccines have not yet been delivered. Meanwhile, in recent months, Turkish police have raided and detained around 50 Uighurs in deportation centres, lawyers say — a sharp uptick from last year.

Although no hard evidence has yet emerged for a quid pro quo, these legislators and the Uighurs fear that Beijing is using the vaccines as leverage to win passage of an extradition treaty. The treaty was signed years ago, but suddenly ratified by China in December, and could come before Turkish lawmakers as soon as this month.

Uighurs say the bill, once law, could bring their ultimate lifethreatening nightmare: deportation back to a country they fled to avoid mass detention. More than a million Uighurs and other largely Muslim minorities have been swept into prisons and detention camps in China, in what China calls an anti-terrorism measure, but the United States has declared a genocide.

“I’m terrified of being deported,” said Melike, Metseydi’s wife, through tears, declining to give her last name for fear of retribution. “I’m worried for my husband’s mental health.”

Suspicions of a deal emerged when the first shipment of Chinese vaccines was held up for weeks in December. Officials blamed permit issues.

But even now, Yildirim Kaya, a legislator from Turkey’s main opposition party, said that China

has delivered only a third of the 30 million doses it promised by the end of January. Turkey is largely reliant on China’s Sinovac vaccine to immunize its population against the virus, which has infected some 2.5 million and killed over 26,000.

Both Turkish and Chinese authorities insist that the extradition bill isn’t meant to target Uighurs for deportation. Chinese state media called such concerns “smearing,” and Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin denied any connection between vaccines and the treaty. “I think your speculation is unfounded,” he said.