ANKARA - A group of people gathered on Friday outside the Chinese embassy building in the Turkish capital, Ankara, in protest of what their spokesperson said "inhuman repression" against the people of the autonomous Xinjiang region.
Demonstrators chanted slogans as police stopped the group from getting closer to the embassy building.
"Chinese government forces have beaten off Muslim worshippers, who refused to place olympic placards on the walls of their mosque in the Aksu province of East Turkestan, and a bulldozer razed the mosque to the ground," group`s spokesperson said.
Many Uyghurs, the largest group within the Turkic people of the region, feel they are forced to assimilate to a Chinese way of life and feel threatened by the spread of Chinese culture, religious persecution and discrimination.
China claims it has an historic claim on Xinjiang, arguing that independence movements are largely funded and led by outside forces that seek to weaken China. It also claims many of the separatist movements are connected to terrorism and the drug trade.
"This latest incident has once again showed China`s real face. China`s only goal is to destroy innocent people who it accuses with being terrorists," the spokesperson said.
(YMB-GC)
(GEN)