Dozens of people from China's Uyghur Muslim ethnic group protested in Istanbul on Sunday, calling for a boycott of next month's Winter Olympics in Beijing over China's treatment of the minority.

The protesters gathered outside the city's Turkish Olympic Committee building, waving the blue-and-white flags of the independence movement of East Turkestan, a group Beijing says threatens the stability of its far western region of Xinjiang.

"China stop the genocide, China close the camps", chanted the demonstrators, some holding up a banner reading "Stop Genocide Olympics".