PRESS RELEASE – For Immediate Release
East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE)
East-Turkistan.Net
contact@East-Turkistan.Net
13 April 2025
Washington, D.C. – The East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) welcomes the introduction of a motion on East Turkistan by Dutch Member of Parliament Stephan Van Baarle on April 9, 2025, in the House of Representatives of the Netherlands (Tweede Kamer), calling on the Dutch government to refer to the occupied country colonially labeled by China as “Xinjiang” by its rightful name: East Turkistan.
The motion correctly identifies “Xinjiang” as a colonial term—imposed by Beijing to erase the true national identity of the Uyghur and other Turkic peoples—and affirms that a majority of the native population reject it. This marks a bold and necessary step toward confronting China’s colonial narrative and affirming the national identity of East Turkistan. It sends a message to colonial regimes: you do not get to rewrite history, rename nations, and commit genocide with impunity.
The ETGE commends MP Van Baarle’s principled leadership and calls on the Dutch Parliament to pass the motion on East Turkistan without delay. This is not a symbolic issue—it is a matter of truth, justice, and historical accuracy. Recognizing the name East Turkistan and rejecting colonial terminology is a critical act of solidarity with a nation under occupation.
“The Dutch Parliament has demonstrated moral clarity and political courage at a time when the world often remains silent,” said Dr. Mamtimin Ala, President of the East Turkistan Government in Exile. “This is a historic recognition not just of a name, but of a people, a nation, and their right to exist. Every government that claims to defend justice must now follow suit.”
East Turkistan was never part of China. It was an independent country and declared sovereignty twice in the 20th century—first on November 12, 1933, and again on November 12, 1944, as the East Turkistan Republic. The Chinese Communist regime invaded on October 12, 1949, and overthrew the republic on December 22, 1949. Since then, the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party has subjected East Turkistan to brutal colonial occupation and a campaign of colonization and genocide aimed at destroying its native population and national identity.
The ongoing genocide against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other Turkic peoples—including mass internment, forced sterilizations, slave labor, destruction of religious sites, and mass organ harvesting—is a direct result of China’s illegal occupation of East Turkistan. This is not an internal matter—it is an international crime and a crisis of global moral responsibility.
“Every government that uses the colonial term “Xinjiang” helps China cover up genocide and colonialism,” said Salih Hudayar, Minister for Foreign Affairs and National Security. “The world must call it what it is—East Turkistan—and recognize it as an occupied nation. Anything less is complicity in China’s war on our people, our homeland, and our very existence.”
The East Turkistan Government in Exile is calling on all democratic governments, international organizations, and institutions to take immediate and concrete action. First, they must recognize and use the rightful name—East Turkistan—instead of the Chinese Communist Party’s colonial term “Xinjiang” in all official communications. Second, they must recognize East Turkistan for what it is: an occupied country under Chinese military and political control. Finally, they must support the East Turkistani people’s right to national independence and external self-determination, in full accordance with decolonization and international law.
Silence is complicity. Recognition is action. The international community cannot continue to claim it upholds decolonization and justice while echoing the language of a genocidal occupier. The people of East Turkistan are not asking for pity—they are demanding the freedom and justice they have been denied for over seventy years. The time to stand up is now.
The East Turkistan Government in Exile has outlined the full scope of the case for restoring East Turkistan’s independence in its official book, East Turkistan Was Never a Part of China and Restoring its Independence is the Only Way Forward . The publication documents East Turkistan’s long-standing history of statehood, exposes China’s illegal occupation and colonization since 1949, and provides extensive evidence of the ongoing genocide. It also presents a comprehensive legal and policy framework for international recognition and action. The ETGE urges governments, institutions, and global stakeholders to engage with this work as a foundation for meaningful policy, justice, and strategic response.