Ankara Turkey January 6, ANI Uyghurs filed a criminal case with a Turkish prosecutor against Chinese officials for committing genocide in the province of Xinjiang.
Lawyer Gulden Sonmez said on Tuesday that international bodies had not acted against Chinese authorities, who have been accused of facilitating forced labour by detaining about a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in forced camps since 2016 by detaining about a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in forced camps.
The Turks share ethnic, religious and linguistic connections with about 50,000 Uyghurs with whom Turks share ethnic, religious and linguistic connections are believed to reside in Turkey, the largest Uyghur diaspora outside Central Asia.
The complaint was filed with the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office and China's embassy in Turkey on Tuesday. The prosecutor's office did not respond to requests for comment.
The international criminal court should have started the trial, but China is a member of the United Nations Security Council and it does not seem to be possible within this dynamic, Sonmez said outside the city's main court.
More than 50 people holding photos of missing relatives and signs calling for the prosecution of Chinese officials were among the surrounds of the lawyer, according to Al Jazeera.
China initially denied the camps existed but has since stated that they are vocational centres and are designed to combat extremism and denies all accusations of abuse.
Some Turkish Opposition leaders accused the government of overlooking Uighur rights in favor of other interests with China.
In July of last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that it was important to Turkey that Uyghur Muslims lived in peace as equal citizens of China, but he said Turkey respected China's national sovereignty.