President
Ghulam Osman Yaghma was born on August 16, 1956 to a Uyghur civil servant family in the town of Atush. He was re-elected as the President of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile on November 11, 2019 at the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile’s 8th General Assembly in Washington, DC. He had previously been elected Acting President following the impeachment of the former President in a Special Parliamentary Session in Mugla, Turkey in October 2018. He is the third President of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile since its formation in 2004. Starting in 2009, he had previously served as the Strategic Advisor to the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile. He was elected as the Deputy Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile at the 7th General Assembly held in Tokyo, Japan from November 12 to November 15.
Ghulam Osman Yaghma was unable to attend higher education due to political reasons. He was barred from getting a higher education because at the age of 16 he had participated in creating an organization to liberate East Turkistan from Chinese occupation. Despite having taken the university entrance exam twice and getting the highest score both times in the entire Kashgar region, the Chinese authorities refused to allow him entrance into institutes of higher education.
Despite being barred from entering into institutes of higher education, Mr. Yaghma continued to educate himself by reading hundreds of books on history, politics, science, and literature. At the invitation of the Radio-Telecommunications College in Atush, he served as an instructor of contemporary Uyghur language, literature, and statistics. He also authored numerous books, novels, articles, and poems in a bid to awaken the East Turkistani people in their struggle for restoring East Turkistan’s independence. Lost Treasure, He Is Still in Battle, Sigh, and Reflection are among the most read fiction novels written by him. He wrote numerous political orientated books include Exploring on the Path of East Turkistan Liberation (3 volumes), Mirror, and Tears of East Turkistan among others. He plans on publishing new books: Heroic Age (Novel), Mirage, Foam, Letters that Have Not Been Sent, along with 3 poetic books.
Ghulam Osman Yaghma
President
Mr. Yaghma fled East Turkistan to Central Asia on April 30, 1996, where he engaged in business. He later fled Central Asia to Turkey in 1999 after he was not permitted to stay in Central Asia. In Turkey he appealed to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees office in Turkey and after 3 years, on March 2002, he was given asylum in Canada. He is fluent in Uyghur and Turkish, and proficient in English and Chinese. Mr. Yaghma is married and has 8 children, two of which are in concentration camps, he is currently residing in Edmonton, Canada.
President Yaghma’s vision is to build a peaceful, progressive, modern and tolerant society deeply inspired by his personal values and beliefs in peaceful coexistence among all the religious and Turkic ethnic communities within East Turkistan. During his tenure as President, he endeavored to develop and stabilize the political process by promoting an inclusive and consensus approach to governance. His vision is for an independent East Turkistan Republic that is democratic, peaceful, and politically stable, and a valued contributor to the peace, stability, and the well-being of Central Asia, and the entire World.
You can contact him at: President@East-Turkistan.Net
Vice President
Abdulahat Nur
Vice President
Abdulahat Nur was appointed Vice President of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile on November 11, 2019.
Mr. Abdulahat Nur was born on June 10, 1967 to a Uyghur farming family in Maralbeshi County (Kashgar Region), East Turkistan. He studied politics and religion from 1982-1990 at what was then known as the Kasghar Kingdom University, achieving an equivalent of a Masters.
In February 1990, he was arrested in Maralbeshi for “preaching religion” then once the Barin Uprising erupted in April 1990, he was accused of being connected to the uprising and transferred to Kashgar’s provincial prison. He was sentenced to two years in prison and was released in November 1992. From 1993 to 1997 he secretly advocated for religious and political freedom. He later fled East Turkistan for Kyrgyzstan on September 27, 1997 and continued to advocate for religious and political freedom in a bid to awaken the East Turkistani people.
After being unable to stay in Central Asia, Mr. Nur fled to Turkey in June 1999 and appealed to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees office in Turkey. He was granted asylum in Canada in 2001 and moved to Edmonton where he has advocated for religious and political freedoms for East Turkistan’s people. In 2006, Chinese intelligence officials called him and unsuccessfully tried to coerce him into working for China. After Mr. Nur had refused, the Chinese intelligence officials threw his daughters Feride (age 13), and Amina (age 10) along with his only son Alimjan (9) into a ditch in a gold mine, Feride was injured whereas Amina and Alimjan died. In 2008, he founded the Alberta Uyghur Cultural Society and has been the President since. Under his leadership, in 2012, the Alberta Uyghur Cultural Society purchased a 4,000 sq. ft building which they turned into a cultural center, and regularly hold classes to teach Uyghur language, East Turkistan history, and culture to children and those interested in learning about the Uyghurs and East Turkistan.
He joined the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile at the Special Parliamentary Session in Mugla, Turkey in October 2018 and was appointed as the Minister of Religious and Endowment Affairs. Following the impeachment of the former Prime Minister, Ismail Cengiz, at a Special Parliamentary Meeting in Washington, DC from April 19 to April 20, 2019, the Deputy Prime Minister declined to be Prime Minister, instead nominating Mr. Nur to be the Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile. Mr. Nur was elected as the Inspector General of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile. During a Parliamentary Session on June 30, 2019, Mr. Nur, with a majority vote, was confirmed as the Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile until the 8th General Assembly which took place in Washington, DC from November 9th to the November 12, 2019.
Since becoming a member of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile, Abdulehed Nur has continued advocating for religious freedom, political independence, and unity among our people. He has also been active in preventing radicalization and intolerance among the Uyghur and East Turkistani diaspora. His vision is for an independent East Turkistan that is democratic, pluralistic, and peaceful. He envisions that East Turkistan will one day be a shining example of religious freedom and human rights in not only Central Asia, but also the entire world.
Mr. Nur is fluent in Uyghur, Uzbek, Kazakh, Turkish, Persian, Arabic, and English. He is married and has 7 kids (2 were killed by Chinese intelligence) and he currently resides in Edmonton, Canada with his wife and 4 daughters.
You can contact him at: VP@East-Turkistan.Net