ANKARA (Combined reports) – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised yesterday to grant a visa to exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, a day after she said she had twice been denied entry to his country.

“I learned from the Foreign Ministry that she had previously applied for a visa. If she makes a new application, we will give her a visa,” Erdogan told reporters in Ankara before flying to the G8 summit in Italy.

His remarks came a day after Kadeer – president of the World Uighur Congress – told Turkey’s NTV news channel that her applications for a Turkish visa were denied in 2006 and 2007.

The 62-year-old Kadeer – who has been living in the United States since March 2005 after being deported by China – is blamed by Chinese officials for instigating the unrest in Xinjiang where at least 156 people have died.

Erdogan on Wednesday condemned the violence as an “atrocity” and said his country would put the matter on the agenda of the UN Security Council – a call rejected by China.

Turkey’s industry and trade minister yesterday called on Turks to stop buying Chinese goods to protest the ethnic violence in Xinjiang province. Nihat Ergun’s office said the minister asked Turks to boycott Chinese-made goods but that government had no plans for an official boycott. “Let’s check to see whether the country whose products we are consuming respects humanity,” the minister said during a visit to the central province of Yozgat, according to the private Dogan news agency. (AP, AFP)