On the occasion of International Women's Day, a theme-based protest was held in Istanbul against human rights violations in China.
The protest, titled "Blue March", was organized by Hidayetullah Oguzkhan, President of East Turkistan Union of NGOs.
Despite police restrictions, thousands of women protesters marched towards the Sanrachna park, near Beyazit Square on March 8.
Protestors holding Uyghur flags and placards raised anti-China and pro-East Turkestan slogans.
Some people were seen holding placards with slogans "shame on Imran Khan for deporting Uyghur women to China" and "Imran blind-eyed for Uyghur Muslim women".
They demanded the closure of mass internment camps and the end of the forced separation of children in China's Xinjiang.
Some protestors chanted slogans like "stop the genocide" and "close the camps".
According to the rights group, some 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities are being held in a network of detention camps in Xinjiang since 2017.
China has been rebuked globally for the crackdown on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to mass detention camps, interfering in their religious activities, and sending members of the community to undergo some form of forcible re-education or indoctrination.
However, Beijing has justified the detentions saying the camps are vocational training centres and denied allegations of torturing people in the camps or mistreating other Muslims living in Xinjiang.
( With inputs from ANI )
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