Police in Istanbul have detained six suspects accused of spying on certain senior ethnic Uighur figures in Turkey for Chinese intelligence, state broadcaster TRT reported on Tuesday.
Authorities seek to detain one more suspect following orders from the Istanbul chief public prosecutor’s office, TRT said.
The suspects were accused of gathering information on Uighur people and associations in Turkey for the Chinese authorities, it added.
No further details were immediately available. Ankara rarely targets suspected Chinese state-linked individuals.
An estimate of 50,000 Turkic-speaking and predominantly Muslim Uighurs live in Turkey. Many fled a crackdown in China, leaving some family members behind.
Uighur activists in Turkey have long claimed that they were being intimidated by alleged Chinese operatives inside Turkey.
