BEIJING (AP) — Turkey has vowed to root out militants plotting against China as the two countries pledged to collaborate on a security issue that had been a source of friction. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday in Beijing that Turkey would treat matters of China’s security as its own, signaling close cooperation and a tougher stance against suspected Uighur militants hailing from China’s Xinjiang region. Uighurs share cultural and linguistic ties with Turks and many have sought asylum in Turkey. At the same time Turkish NATO officers get asylum in Norway
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at right shakes hands with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu after a joint press conference held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017. Hundreds if not thousands of Uighurs who have fled China in recent years have traveled to Syria to join Islamic militant groups or simply escape persecution and find a new home. Human rights groups have long accused Beijing of oppressing its Uighur population and inflaming a cycle of radicalization.
Norway and Turkey — NATO’s northern and southern frontiers in Europe — have been pillars of the Western military alliance for more than 60 years. But the diplomatic temperature between the two has fallen steadily since Turkey recalled dozens of military officers as suspects in an aborted coup — and Norway became the first nation to grant some of them asylum, writes Associated Press.
Protecting their identity, former Turkish military officers who have been granted asylum in Norway, pose for a photograph in Stavanger, Norway, Monday, April 3, 2017. With bank accounts frozen and successful unblemished military careers as NATO officers have turned to refugee status and they are now considered suspects in July’s failed coup in Turkey, so they face the possibility of never returning home, rites Ap.
The government in Oslo agreed last month to protect four Turkish officers who had been assigned to NATO and, like colleagues in Germany and Brussels, fear they could be imprisoned as terrorists if they go back to their country. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Norwegian ambassador for an explanation while the officers remain in Stavanger, a city on Norway’s west coast that lies 3,800 kilometers (2,360 miles) from Ankara, reports Ap.
