Dozens killed in riots across Uighur region

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Officials expected the death toll to rise in the region, home to the ethnic Uighurs, Turkic Muslims comprising about half of Xinjiang’s 20 million people. Uighurs living in Turkey claimed casualties are far higher than 140. Authorities shut down the Internet, curbed phone services and Uighurs living in Turkey told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that they have not been able to communicate with the region.

Rioters on Sunday overturned barricades, attacked vehicles and houses, and clashed violently with police in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region.

Seyit Tümtürk, the head of the East Turkestan Culture and Solidarity Association, based in Turkey’s central Anatolian Kayseri, said a larger demonstration is planned in Kashgar, adding, "We are worrying about a possibility of a massacre." Drawing attention to the recent visit of President Abdullah Gül, who became the first Turkish president to visit Xinjiang, Hidayetullah Oğuz, head of another Uighur organization based in Turkey, claimed Beijing increases its oppression after a Turkish leader visits the region. Oğuz said the use of Uighur as a local language was banned in 2002 after the visit of the leader of the National Movement Party, or MHP, Devlet Bahçeli, who at that time was deputy prime minister. Two deputies, who accompanied Gül in his visit, said no sign of an extensive uproar was apparent during a Turkish committee’s visit. But, Selahattin Demirtaş, the head of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP, parliamentary group said Uighurs spoke about the government’s oppression to the committee and said that they were anxious to talk.

Uighurs living in Turkey are set to gather in front of the Chinese Embassy in Ankara Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. to protest the crackdown. Meanwhile, the foreign ministry said it expects those who are responsible for the events to be found and justice to be fulfilled.