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ISTANBUL, TURKEY - JANUARY 22: It was a sunny summer day when Alimcan Turdiniyaz decided it was time to leave his homeland, where has lived all of his life, after he found out that his five-year-old daughter was arrested by Chinese authorities. “My oldest daughter was only five-years-old when she was taken into custody by Chinese authorities in 2012 summer because she was attending a religious summer school,” he said.He felt lucky as the family could get back the little girl from Chinese authorities with bribe. Turdiniyaz, 45, has been living in Istanbul for almost eight years with his three daughters and wife, but his heart is heavy with longing for his family and relatives back in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, also known as East Turkestan. The region is home to over 10 million Uighurs. The Turkic Muslim group, which makes up around 45% of Xinjiang’s population, has long accused Chinese authorities of cultural, religious and economic discrimination. Nearly 100 people gathered peacefully outside the Chinese Consulate in Istanbul on Dec. 22, and protested for 18 days with a demand to know the well-being of their families, which they have never heard since 2017. “My older brother, my older sister and her husband along with their two children, my other older sister’s son-in-law, as well a friend of mine are in China’s ‘so-called’ political re-education camps,” Turdiniyaz told Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview. He said Chinese authorities visited all Uighur families’ homes in Xinjiang in 2016 and they advised Uighurs to get passport and visit their families abroad. “But little did we know it was a trap. Everyone who went abroad that year and onward are now in camps, or elsewhere which we do not know,” he said. He said they check social media platforms such as TikTok and Facebook to see if they could have a “glimpse” of their families in video recordings. (Footage by Kerem Alperen Kaya /Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)