A neo-nationalist ally of Turkey’s Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tried to lobby for the Turkish government during a workshop organized by the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing on Saturday.
“Turkey under [Erdoğan’s] governing Justice and Development Party [AKP] has turned its face to Asia. We should handle this [policy shift] together and with care,” said the leader of Turkey’s neo-nationalist Homeland Party (VP), Doğu Perinçek.
“Turkey, geographically an Asian country, is now becoming an Asian country politically as well. Turkey will free itself from the Atlantic bloc. China’s support is extremely important at this crossroad. Turkey’s membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization [SCO] will incapacitate US efforts aimed at harming bilateral relations between China and Turkey,” Perinçek said.
Calling allegations of persecution of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province “provocations staged by the US,” Perinçek likened Uighur Muslims to outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) guerrillas and claimed that Turkey and China were jointly confronting two terrorist projects pursued by the US in both “East Turkistan and Kurdistan.”
Yu Wei, deputy chief of the North Africa and West Asia Desk of the Communist Party, expressed gratitude for the visit of the VP delegation and described it as a good-will envoy that promotes relations between China and Turkey while the Western countries try to harm China.
Perinçek, accompanied by 15 party members, will stop over in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, for an international conference on counterterrorism and ethnic discrimination.
The VP is staunchly anti-NATO and pro-Iran and advocates Turkey severing its ties with the West. The party promotes the idea of Turkey, Russia and Iran becoming allied powers along with China against the West.
