In Turkey, an air of impending doom engulfs the 50,000 Uyghurs who fled Xinjiang’s nightmare of repression. Passport-less and residency-denied, they huddle in fear of China’s pull, bracing for dungeons, agony, and erasure under Beijing’s rule.
No longer a fortress against tyranny, Turkey buzzes with stories of snatch-and-grab arrests, expulsion ultimatums, and sham terror labels, per Bitter Winter. HRW’s ‘Protected No More’ report by Yałkun Uluyol unmasks the hypocrisy: citizenship shields few, leaving families exposed to relentless pursuits.
Scholar Abdurehim Ayup exposed the roundup of 31 Uyghurs in Istanbul’s anti-terror blitz targeting ISIS before year-end. Decade-plus dwellers with steady work, released charge-free post-December protests by rights groups.
Heart-wrenching was the grab of mother Muyesser Ali, her infant Enis Abdullah, and siblings. Health woes spared the older ones; the pair landed in Izmir’s expulsion hub, staring down China-bound flights. Global advocacy yanked them out in a week—silence on reasons.
China’s tentacles via embassies squeeze Uyghurs into betrayal, tormenting Chinese relatives for leverage. Rooted now with kids in class, homes owned, Turkish spoken fluently, careers launched, their Turkish idyll frays amid Sino-Turkic thaw.