The statement below is attributed to the East Turkistan Government in Exile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Security

The East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) issues its strongest condemnation of the statement made by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin on August 31, 2025. By publicly supporting China’s position on East Turkistan, Azerbaijan has chosen to side with Beijing’s campaign of colonization, genocide, and occupation against the Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples of East Turkistan.

East Turkistan is the cradle of Turkic civilization. For Azerbaijan, a nation that claims the proud legacy of Turkic identity, to align itself with China’s campaign of colonization, genocide, and occupation in East Turkistan is a betrayal of history, a betrayal of its Turkic brothers and sisters, and a betrayal of the very principles of dignity and justice.

The Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, and other Turkic peoples of Occupied East Turkistan are enduring mass internment, mass enslavement through forced labor, mass sterilization, cultural eradication, mass organ harvesting, and systematic efforts to erase their very identity and existence. To endorse Beijing’s position is to endorse and be complicit in these crimes.

We also condemn the SCO itself, which was created by China to suppress the East Turkistan national cause and to provide political cover for tyranny. The SCO is not a platform for peace or security. It is a mechanism of repression, colonialism, and occupation.

The East Turkistan Government in Exile calls on Azerbaijan to immediately end its support for China’s actions in Occupied East Turkistan, to sever complicity with Beijing’s genocide, and to stand with its Turkic brothers in East Turkistan rather than with its oppressors. History will not forgive betrayal, nor will the Turkic peoples forget it.

— Salih Hudayar, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Security of the East Turkistan Government in Exile