--- title: Turkey Tells China to Close 'Camps' Holding Muslim Uighurs description: Turkey demanded Chinese authorities respect human rights of the Muslim Uighur minority and close “concentration camps” imprisoning them. canonical: https://time.com/5526022/turkey-china-concentration-camps-uighurs/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-09T21:43:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T22:44:00.054Z article:section: World og:title: Turkey Demands China Close "Concentration Camps" Holding Uighurs og:description: Turkey says more than 1 million Uighurs are being tortured and “politically brainwashed” og:url: https://time.com/5526022/turkey-china-concentration-camps-uighurs/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d84d450822e174f/698944dc86f68e54cd6eb537/turkey-china-uighur.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: turkey-china-uighur og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Turkey Demands China Close "Concentration Camps" Holding Uighurs twitter:description: Turkey says more than 1 million Uighurs are being tortured and “politically brainwashed” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d84d450822e174f/698944dc86f68e54cd6eb537/turkey-china-uighur.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Turkey Demands China Close 'Concentration Camps' Holding Muslim Uighurs ## Video: 'I Begged Them to Kill Me.' Uighur Woman Tells Congress of Torture in Chinese Internment Camps [Watch (HLS stream): 'I Begged Them to Kill Me.' Uighur Woman Tells Congress of Torture in Chinese Internment Camps](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/00Qz2HaP.m3u8) (1:13)  _Published 2018-11-30. A Uighur woman told a Congressional committee this week that she was tortured and suffered the loss of a child in a mass internment camp, pressing the U.S. to take punitive action against China’s mass detention of the Muslim minority._ by [Cagan Koc / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Cagan Koc / Bloomberg Feb 9, 2019 9:43 PM CUT  Activists protest the treatment of Uyghur Muslims by Chinese authorities in the East Turkestan region of China's Xinjiang province at a protest outside the Chinese embassy in London, England, on Feb. 2, 2019\. On Feb. 9, 2019 Turkey demanded China close "concentration camps" holding the Muslim Uighur minority. Activists protest the treatment of Uyghur Muslims by Chinese authorities in the East Turkestan region of China's Xinjiang province at a protest outside the Chinese embassy in London, England, on Feb. 2, 2019\. On Feb. 9, 2019 Turkey demanded China close "concentration camps" holding the Muslim Uighur minority.NurPhoto—NurPhoto via Getty Images by [Cagan Koc / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Cagan Koc / Bloomberg Feb 9, 2019 9:43 PM CUT (Bloomberg) — Turkey demanded Chinese authorities respect human rights of the Muslim Uighur minority and close “concentration camps” imprisoning them. More than 1 million Uighurs are being tortured and “politically brainwashed” in camps and prisons in China, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement on the ministry’s website Saturday. While Turkey and China broadly have good relations, Aksoy said he was responding to the death of Uighur poet and musician Abdurehim Heyit in a Chinese prison. Turkish media said he was tortured to death in a so-called re-education camp in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. “The re-emergence of concentration camps in the 21st century and China’s systematic assimilation policy toward Uighur Turks are great embarrassment for humanity,” Aksoy said. The detention and “re-education” of as many as 1 million minority Muslim Uighurs in China’s far west has been condemned by human rights groups and prompted calls for sanctions from U.S. lawmakers, who reject China’s assertion that the camps are voluntary education centers that help purge “ideological diseases.” Turkey calls on other countries and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to take steps to end the “humanitarian tragedy” in Xinjiang, Aksoy said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5526022/turkey-china-concentration-camps-uighurs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5526022/turkey-china-concentration-camps-uighurs/"},"headline":"Turkey Demands China Close 'Concentration Camps' Holding Muslim Uighurs","datePublished":"2019-02-09T21:43:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T22:44:00.054Z","description":"Turkey says more than 1 million Uighurs are being tortured and “politically brainwashed”","url":"https://time.com/5526022/turkey-china-concentration-camps-uighurs/","keywords":["Turkey","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d84d450822e174f/698944dc86f68e54cd6eb537/turkey-china-uighur.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cagan Koc / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d84d450822e174f/698944dc86f68e54cd6eb537/turkey-china-uighur.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"turkey-china-uighur","caption":"Activists protest the treatment of Uyghur Muslims by Chinese authorities","creditText":"NurPhoto—NurPhoto via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/turkey/","name":"Turkey"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5526022/turkey-china-concentration-camps-uighurs/","name":"Turkey Demands China Close 'Concentration Camps' Holding Muslim Uighurs"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"'I Begged Them to Kill Me.' 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