On the 12th of November 2022, exiled Uyghurs living in Turkey celebrated the creation of two East Turkestan Republics. A meeting was organised by East Turkestan Federation at the Nihat Yuceur Sports Complex in Kemalpasa, Safakoy district, Istanbul at 1:30 PM. It was attended by 2000 attendees including women, children and NGO representatives.
The primary reason behind this meeting was to fight the hunger genocide and atrocities committed by the Chinese Government on the Uyghurs in Western China. Additionally, the secondary objective was to fight the Chinese Occupation of East Turkestan which is considered the motherland of the Uyghur Muslims.
Another gathering was organised by chairman Hidayetullah Oghuzan (International Union of East Turkestan) at the Beylikduzu Kaya Hotel in Istanbul and saw an enormous number of participations by community members, Islamic Ulemas and Uyghur Academicians. Oghuzan spoke about the need to understand and highlight Chinese Genocidal policy against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups of western China. The meeting was attended by 800-900 members.
A third meeting was organised by the East Turkestan Republic Commemoration was organised by the Uyghur Science and Civilisational Research Foundations along with World Uyghur Congress Foundation and East Turkestan Research Foundation was attended by 200 delegates comprising politicians, academics and journalists.
Faruk Bal, a former minister of the State spoke on the assimilation policies being followed by the Chinese regime adding, “In the 21st century, Uyghur Turks are being massacred in front of the eyes of the world. People are taken from their homes in groups to camps only because they are Uyghur, Kazakh or Kyrgyz and are subjected to the most brutal tortures you can think of in the camps.”
Dr Oghuzan Aydin, the head of the Turkish Language and Literature department at Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University said, “We should never be hopeless in our struggle for East Turkestan’s independence. Our goal is to perform the morning prayer on the Great Wall of China, considered to be a red apple for the Uyghurs.”
The Good Party Deputy, Fahrettin Yokus said that the East Turkestan issue is a national issue for our 85 million people living in Turkey. Most importantly, it is an issue concerning humanity.
Recently Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu along with senior officials of the Turkish Directorate of Migration Management met with a high-level Chinese delegation consisting of the Deputy Minister of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China.
The meeting sparked concerns and drew criticism from the Uyghur community and its leaders that the Chinese agenda was aimed at restricting Uyghur activities in Turkey, which may lead to the extradition of Uyghurs on the pretext of their being involved in criminal activities.
