Turkey sent a series of messages to Beijing when it publicized a bust against a network suspected of spying for China against Uyghur targets in the country earlier this week.
The Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) operatives and police raided several locations in Istanbul on Feb. 20, detaining six people for reportedly monitoring Turkey-based activists who oppose Beijing’s clampdown on the Uyghur people, a Turkic and predominantly Muslim minority living in China’s northwest Xinjiang region. Most Uyghurs around the world refer to Xinjiang as “East Turkestan” and the Uyghur people as “Uyghur Turks.”
The bust highlights Turkey’s international standing as a NATO member with strong independent streak, whose foreign policy choices don’t always align with the Western camp.
Ali Burak Daricili, a former intelligence officer with MIT and an associate professor of international relations at Bursa Technical University, stresses that counterespionage operations “do not take place independently” of foreign affairs.
