While Beijing imprisons, tortures, and slaughters Turkic peoples in Occupied East Turkistan, Kazakhstan convicts and punishes its own citizens for daring to speak out. This is the tragic reality of Kazakhstan today.
The East Turkistan Government-in-Exile (ETGE) unequivocally condemns the conviction of 19 Kazakh citizens who did nothing more than demand the release of a Kazakh illegally detained in Occupied East Turkistan, the ancestral homeland of the Uyghurs and home to millions of Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples. Kazakhstan charged its own citizens with “inciting ethnic hatred” for burning a Chinese flag and a portrait of Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, who bears direct responsibility for the genocide against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and all Turkic peoples in Occupied East Turkistan.
Yet the government of Kazakhstan shamelessly remains silent as China detains, tortures, enslaves, and harvests the organs of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic peoples in Occupied East Turkistan. Where is the outrage over China’s assault on the dignity, honor, and very existence of millions of Turkic peoples in Occupied East Turkistan, including millions of ethnic Kazakhs?
China operates concentration camps and slave factories in Occupied East Turkistan where Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic peoples, including citizens of Kazakhstan, are enslaved, tortured, and killed for their organs. The November 13, 2025 protest was not “incitement.” It was a cry for justice. Yet following a complaint from Beijing, Kazakhstan weaponized Article 174 of its own Criminal Code against its own people. This is not justice. This is capitulation to Chinese imperialism.
A truly sovereign government does not arrest its own citizens on orders from a foreign regime carrying out genocide against its own Turkic kin. It does not silence those crying out for brothers and sisters in Chinese concentration camps. It does not prosecute its own people while rewarding genocidal invaders and oppressors with trade deals and silence. Every concession Astana makes to China betrays every Uyghur, Kazakh, and Turkic person in Occupied East Turkistan and betrays Kazakhstan’s own sovereignty and the future of its people.
The ETGE calls on Kazakhstan to act without delay: release all 19 convicted activists, lift all restrictions, and drop all charges; defend every Uyghur, Kazakh, and Turkic people held captive in Occupied East Turkistan; condemn China’s genocide against all Turkic peoples; rally the United Nations and the Organization of Turkic States to oppose China’s campaign of colonization, genocide, and occupation of East Turkistan; and recognize East Turkistan as an occupied country and support its decolonization and restoration of independence.
The government of Kazakhstan must heed the tragedy of East Turkistan as a grave warning. China’s endgame is not partnership. It is the complete subjugation of all Turkic peoples. Beijing does not see Kazakhstan as a partner. It sees Kazakhstan as its next target.
We call on President Tokayev to make a choice history will judge him by: stand with your own people and your Turkic kin in East Turkistan, or submit to a foreign power actively trying to devour East Turkistan and Kazakhstan.
The time for silence and appeasement is over. History is watching. The Kazakh people deserve a government that fights for them, not one that prosecutes its own citizens on Beijing’s orders and governs as though Kazakhstan were nothing more than China’s next “autonomous region.”