The article below was originally published by The Norman Transcript, photo credit: The Tribune
A University of Oklahoma graduate grew up in Cleveland County after fleeing political violence as a child and is now a leader in the Uyghur fight against Chinese oppression.
“My grandfather was the last person I spoke to,” said Salih Hudayar. “I think it would’ve been like June of 2017 and he said, ‘No, don’t ever call us anymore. We don’t know you. I’m too old to go to school. Leave us alone now.’ and school is the code word euphemism for the so-called reeducation camps that are actually concentration camps in China.”
Hudayar graduated from OU in 2017 with a degree in International and Area Studies and a minor in political science that led him to Washington D.C. to advocate for East Turkistan, the region called Xinjiang by the People’s Republic of China.
Advocates across the world have expressed concern to the ongoing genocide, first recognized by the United States in 2021.
“Despite the fact the United States recognized it as genocide back in January 2021 there has been, unfortunately, no meaningful, real, concrete actions to stop the atrocities. It’s happening right now,” he said.
Hudayar’s start in Oklahoma looked the same as many others.
“I attended Hubbard Elementary and Curtis Middle School in Noble, then moved to Norman in 2005, became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2009, and graduated from Norman North High School in 2011,” said Salih Hudayar.
After high school, he first attended the University of Central Oklahoma for ROTC as he achieved the rank of Private First Class in the 179th Infantry of the Oklahoma Army National Guard.
“My childhood dream was to become a military officer,” he said. “That’s why I initially studied at University of Central Oklahoma, where I did ROTC there.”
An emergency during training took his career in a different direction.
“In 2013, it was like a field training exercise, I had an emergency appendectomy, and then it became a scan and saw that I had kidney problems, polycystic kidney disease. So that ended my military career,” he said.
However, after transferring to OU to study international politics, his career found a new foothold.
In the summer of 2017, Hudayar co-founded the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement.
“The goal was to raise awareness, advocate for East Turkistan’s independence, and push for international recognition of the atrocities,” he said.
“This is around the same time when, you know, China started to lock up millions of more people in concentration camps.”
In DC, they began pushing for the Uyghur Policy Act.
“We lobbied or advocated for the Uyghur Policy Act. We were able to get that introduced in 2018, then I was able to mobilize youth that are on our Global Diaspora to do similar actions in their host countries,” he said.
In China, East Turkistan is referred to as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The Xinjiang (East Turkistan) internment camps, called vocational education and training centers by China’s government, have been criticized by groups like Human Rights Watch and a subcommittee of the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. The subcommittee officially stated in 2018 that “if the international community does not condemn the human rights abuses in Xinjiang province by the Government of China, a precedent will be set, and these methods will be adopted by other regimes.”
Hudayar’s activism led him to be nominated as the Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government in Exile in 2019, which he served until his move to Foreign Minister in 2023.
“With the election in 2019 our diaspora community nominated me to lead the government in exile, despite the fact I had no intention to do that,” he said.
Hudayar described the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile as “a democratically elected representative body headquartered in Washington with a Constitution, Parliament-In-Exile, and an advocacy arm.”
“In 2020, after years of meeting with Senators, House members, and other world leaders (and organizing rallies in front of the Capitol and the White House), I talked Senator John Cornyn into declaring the treatment of Uyghurs by the Chinese a genocide: I subsequently played an integral role in pressuring Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to make the same declaration in the final 2 days of the first Trump administration,” he said.
He has committed to serving as a leader and policy advocate in the service of Uyghurs under Chinese rule. Hudayar continues to advocate for policy addressing the genocide.
“Learn more about the Uyghurs. Learn more about the Uyghur genocide. And urge our lawmakers, our senators, our congressmen, our representatives in Congress, call on the US to fulfill its obligations under the UN Genocide Convention,” he said.