Is Turkey paying a bloody price for double standards on terror?

Zhou Zunyou says Islamic State and Uygur jihadist groups are by-products of the shifting rules of the US, Turkey and their allies against terrorism, which could even force Beijing to give up its foreign policy of non-interference

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Flowers and Turkish flags are placed at a shrine to the victims near the entrance to the Reina nightclub in Istanbul on January 3. Thirty-nine people were killed when a gunman went on the rampage shortly after revellers had welcomed in the New Year. Photo: Reuters

Published: 11:45am, 11 Jan 2017Updated: 6:21pm, 11 Jan 2017

In the early hours of 2017, a lone gunman went on the rampage in Istanbul’s upscale Reina nightclub, killing 39 partygoers and wounding 69 others. While the attacker remains at large, Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the carnage – in revenge for Turkish military operations in Syria.

After days of media speculation, Turkish authorities identified the suspect as an ethnic Uygur who moved to the country with his family last November following training in Syria. Several other Uygurs were rounded up on suspicion of aiding and abetting the killer.

Turkey tightens borders as official confirms Istanbul attacker a Turkic Uygur

Uygurs are a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority largely concentrated in China’s far-western region of Xinjiang, and with a noticeable presence in Central Asia and Turkey. In the context of the global jihadist movement, Uygur extremists have been seeking to set up an independent state of their own, called “East Turkestan”, through violent acts in the name of revolting against repressive Chinese rule.

A frame grab from a video distributed by Turkish police and released on January 3 purports to show the Reina nightclub attack suspect taking a seflie in Istanbul. Photo: Reuters

Since the start of the Syrian civil war, thousands of Uygur fighters have reportedly settled in deserted parts of Idlib province in northern Syria. A significant proportion belong to the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), a jihadist group linked to al-Qaeda and fighting against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The TIP is also known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, listed as a terrorist organisation by the UN.

Turkey has encouraged the exodus of Uygurs from China ... despite China’s repeated warnings that some were on their way to join the jihad

In addition to the Syrian civil war, a China-backed Pakistani counterterrorism campaign has been another driving force for the relocation of TIP militants, from their previous headquarters in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan to Syria. And following right behind were flocks of radicalised Uygurs who, lured by jihadist recruiters, had secretly travelled from Xinjiang to Turkey. Many of these “illegal migrants”, as China views them, ended up as foreign fighters in Syria.

Reports also suggest that IS has been competing with al-Qaeda in recruiting Uygurs. Given that Islamic State is claiming credit for the Istanbul attack, the perpetrator is very likely to have been a specially trained IS fighter.