Turkey has broken its silence on China's continued mass detention of its Uyghur ethnic minority, telling Beijing their continued subjugation is a "a great cause of shame for humanity".

Key points: Many Muslim-majority nations haven't criticised China for the treatment of its Muslim minority

Many Muslim-majority nations haven't criticised China for the treatment of its Muslim minority Beijing has almost a million Uyghurs incarcerated in a counter-terrorism operation

Beijing has almost a million Uyghurs incarcerated in a counter-terrorism operation Former detainees say they are subject to physical and mental torture

In a statement released on Saturday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hami Aksoy said it's "no longer a secret" that China has arbitrarily detained more than a million Uyghurs in "concentration camps".

Mr Aksoy was referring to China's mass incarceration of the Muslim Uyghur minority situated in the north-western province of Xinjiang — a region incorporated into modern China after leaders of the East Turkestan Republic surrendered to the Chinese Communist Party in 1949.

An ABC investigation found that these camps span more than 2 million square metres, housing detainees forced to pledge their allegiance to the Chinese state under duress.

One former detainee told the ABC she was injected with unknown substances and subjected to physical and mental forms of torture.

Compared to China's ethnically homogenous Han majority, Uyghurs are an ethnic group of Turkic origins who have been slowly outnumbered since widescale Han migration to Xinjiang began after 1949.

Since the 1990s, Uyghur groups have tried to regain independence for East Turkestan through force which China has vehemently quashed.

The Communist party's white paper on the region claims that Xinjiang "has been an inseparable part of the unitary multi-ethnic Chinese nation" since ancient times, and claimed that:

"… a small number of separatists and religious extremists in Xinjiang, influenced by the international trend of religious extremism and national chauvinism, politicised the unstandardised geographical term 'East Turkestan', and fabricated an 'ideological and theoretical system' on the so-called 'independence of East Turkestan' on the basis of the allegation cooked up by the old colonialists."

Beijing commits 'tragedy', says Turkey

Sorry, this video has expired United Nations human rights expert voices concerns over 're-education camps'.

Turkey said the Uyghurs faced pressure and "systematic assimilation" in western China.

Mr Aksoy said Turkey has shared with China its position on "all levels" and urged authorities to close the detention facilities and respect human rights.

The minister said Turkey had also learned of the death in prison of famed Uyghur musician and poet Abdurehim Heyit, who had been sentenced to eight years over one of his songs.

"This tragedy has further reinforced the reaction of the Turkish public opinion toward serious human rights violations committed in the Xinjiang region," Mr Aksoy said.

"We expect this legitimate response to be taken into account by the Chinese authorities. We respectfully commemorate Abdurehim Heyit and all our kinsmen who lost their lives defending their Turkish and Muslim identity," he said.

Mr Heyit was a master of the dutar, a type of two-stringed instrument with a long neck that is found in Iran and throughout Central Asia.

His detention was considered indicative of China's determination to crack down on Uyghur intellectuals and cultural figures, which some say are attempts at cultural cleansing.

Mr Heyit's death could not be independently confirmed.

Beijing responds with counter-terrorism claims

Beijing has repeatedly claimed that certain Uyghur groups in Xinjiang present a terrorist threat. ( Reuters: Thomas Peter )

China's Embassy in Ankara called Mr Aksoy's comments "completely unacceptable" in a lengthy response posted on its website.

"Both China and Turkey face the arduous task of fighting terrorism. We are opposed to maintaining double standards on the question of fighting terrorism," said the statement, attributed to an embassy spokesperson.

"We hope the Turkish side will have a correct understanding of the efforts made by China to legally deploy measures to effectively fight terrorism and extremism, withdraw its false accusations and take measures to eliminate their harmful effects," it said.

Beijing has intensified its clampdown on what it labels terrorism in the region, following a 2009 riot in Xinjiang capital Urumqi that killed hundreds.

Droves of Uyghurs have fled, with many in Australia refusing to speak on record for fear of state reprisals against family members who live in China.

After months of denying their existence, Chinese authorities, under increasing outside pressure, acknowledged the camps, terming them vocational training centres.

They have provided little or no information on how many are interned within them and how long they are being held.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had once accused China of "genocide" but has since established closer diplomatic and economic relations with Beijing.

ABC/AP