PRESS RELEASE – For Immediate Release
East Turkistan Government in Exile
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A blistering new report by 50 experts from across the globe concluded that the Chinese Government had the “intent to destroy” the Uyghur and other Turkic populations in East Turkistan and committed genocide in clear violation of international law. The independent policy report was undertaken by the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy.

According to the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, some 50 global experts on genocide studies, East Turkistan, international law, and Chinese ethnic policies participated in examining available evidence collected, including testimonies of victims and witnesses, satellite imagery analysis, public Chinese State communications, leaked Chinese government documents, and analysis of information from various sources.

Although the report doesn’t make any recommendations for action, it, however, makes it very clear, through evidence, that the Chinese State is engaged in systematic genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples.  The report also highlights the historical context of China’s genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples by mentioning the fact that the Qing Dynasty had invaded East Turkistan in 1759. 

The Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples  of East Turkistan resisted occupation, rebelling some 42 times from 1759 to 1863. They declared three independent states, The State of East Turkistan / Kashgaria (1865-1877) and the East Turkistan Republics (1933-1934 and 1944-1949), in the late 19th and early 20th century. On October 13, 1949, the then newly established People’s Republic of China invaded East Turkistan and overthrew the independent East Turkistan Republic on December 22, 1949. 

The East Turkistan Government in Exile and East Turkistanis worldwide see China’s illegal occupation and colonization of East Turkistan as the fundamental motive for the Chinese State’s genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples. 

Since January 21, 2021, the U.S. Government, the Parliaments of Canada, and the Netherlands have officially recognized China’s atrocities against the Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan as genocide. A move that has been welcomed by the East Turkistan Government in Exile and East Turkistanis worldwide. China has repeatedly denied the genocide and continues to engage in genocide.

“China’s shameless denial of its ongoing genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples shouldn’t be left unanswered,” the Government in Exile responded to China in a tweet on Tuesday. “The U.S. and other countries should bring the genocide to the agenda of the UN Security Council and ACT to end it.”  

The report cited that the genocide exacerbated with President Xi Jinping launching the “People’s War on Terror” in 2014 against the Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan. Top government officials responded to Xi by issuing orders to “’round up everyone who should be rounded up,’ ‘wipe them out completely … destroy them root and branch,’ and ‘break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections, and break their origins.'” 

The government officials described the Uyghurs in “dehumanizing terms and repeatedly likened the mass internment of Uyghurs to ‘eradicating tumors.’” The report highlights that although it is estimated that there are 1-2 million Uyghurs in interment camps, which the U.S. Department of Defense described as upwards of 3 million people in concentration camps, this doesn’t include the number of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples that have been given official prison sentences from 5 years to life. 

“China is engaging in genocide, as defined under The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan (renamed Xinjiang),” said the ETGE Prime Minister Salih Hudayar. “The international community must fulfill its OBLIGATIONS and ACT to end China’s ongoing genocide.”

The East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) urges all governments worldwide to recognize the genocide and take swift action to end it. 

“We call on the United States to bring the East Turkistan issue to the agenda of the UN Security Council and lead the world in taking meaningful action, in accordance to the UN Genocide Convention and the UN’s Responsibility to Protect Commitment, to bring a swift end to China’s genocide in East Turkistan,” said ETGE President Ghulam Osman Yaghma. 

The report has not only verified the the genocide designations made by former U.S. Secretary Pompeo, current U.S. Secretary Blinken, the Parliaments of Canada and The Netherlands, but it has also bolstered East Turkistan’s case against China at the International Criminal Court. The East Turkistan Government in Exile calls on the international community to support East Turkistan’s case against China at the International Criminal Court. The ETGE urges governments worldwide to boycott the 2022 Beijing Olympics, grant refuge to Uyghurs, and others fleeing the genocide in East Turkistan, and provide diplomatic and political support to the East Turkistan Government in Exile on the international stage.