The below statement is attributed to the Executive Council of the East Turkistan Government in Exile

The Government in Exile of the Republic of East Turkistan (East Turkistan Government in Exile) was founded on September 14, 2004 in Washington, DC with the primary purpose of acting as the sole representatives of East Turkistan and its people until our country has been liberated from Chinese occupation. Today, it is made up of over 60 Parliamentary members representing East Turkistani diaspora community in over 10 countries.

Unfortunately, there has been some confusion regarding the East Turkistan Government in Exile and its representatives. Specifically, there are two individuals fraudulently claiming to be representatives of the East Turkistan Government in Exile, thereby damaging the interests of East Turkistan’s people.

The first is Mr. Anwar Yusuf Turani, who was elected as the first Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government in Exile to serve a 4-year term. In 2006, before even completing his first term, he was impeached by a unanimous vote by the East Turkistan Parliament in Exile for violating the East Turkistan Republic’s Constitutional Amendment No.4, which prohibits any member of the East Turkistan Government and Parliament in Exile from visiting China and (or) countries occupied by China, including East Turkistan, under any circumstances except to formally declare independence when the times comes.

Despite his lawful impeachment, Mr. Turani — has for the past 13 years — embarassingly continued to proclaim that he is still the “Prime Minister” of the East Turkistan Government in Exile.

More gallingly, he has enlisted non-East Turkistanis to join his self-proclaimed “Cabinet.” Most recently, he has appointed a Turkish individual named “Muhammed Nurullah Cetin” as his “Defense Minister.” Furthermore, it appears that this gentleman, Mr. Cetin, is linked to a jihadist group composed of Chechens and Turkmens operating in Syria. Moreover, it appears that this individual was at one point the Honorary Consul to Turkey” from the Chechen “opposition.”

Furthermore, one of the websites connected to Mr. Turani (http://en.eastturkistan-gov.org), which was registered by Mr. Turani on November 11, 2004 during his term and which still lists him as “Prime Mister”) has numerous Turkistan Islamic Party propaganda videos inciting people to wage jihad. All of his reckless activities not only violate our Constitutions’ Article 30 (amended in 2015), which term-limits the position of the Prime Minister to only two-4 year terms (had Mr. Turani not been impeached in 2006), but it also goes against the East Turkistan Government in Exile’s clear policy opposing terrorism (including state terrorism), and most importantly its policy of peaceful struggle for independence, knowing that our only enemy is the Chinese Occupation Forces (Chinese Government and Security Forces), and our only goal is to restore East Turkistan’s independence.

We would like to make it clear that the East Turkistan Government in Exile is not connected to (nor is it in contact with), nor holds sympathy with any group(s) or organization(s) involved in any form of armed conflict in any part of the world. Such organization(s)/group(s) are not compatible with our “one enemy, one goal” policy nor does is it compatible with our desire for world peace, and our desire to re beady to serve as the vanguard warriors of global peace.

The second individual is Ismail Cengiz, based in Turkey, who was another former Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government in Exile (from November 2009 until his impeachment on April 21, 2019). He was impeached by the Parliament after refusing to apologize for violating Article 1 by referring to East Turkistan as “China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” in a statement and repeatedly making reckless statements towards countries other than China, thereby undermining East Turkistan’s interests. Article 1 is one of the six guiding principles of our Constitution which cannot be changed or amended.

In the months since his disgraceful conduct and lawful, he –like Mr. Turani–has continued to claim he is the “Prime Minister” and has slanderously accused several members of the East Turkistan Government in Exile and its Parliament of being “CIA/Pentagon or Mossad assets.” He continued to put our our government in a difficult situation by spreading anti-western, Semitic, and anti-American propaganda. His views are not and cannot be the position held by our government. We again would like to reiterate that we have no enemies other than China and its occupation forces.

More recently, he has been trying to deceive and lure our people by urging members of the the East Turkistani diaspora to go to Afghanistan to fight against China. Although it may appear as calling our people to fighting against the Chinese occupation forces, in reality it is an attempt by the enemy to misguide our youth.

Given his refusal to accept his laweful ompeachement, continiously carrying out activites to undermine the East Turkistan Government in Exile, slanderming members of our government, and his subsequent agistation for East Turkistanis to travel to Afghanistan (thereby endangering their lives), as of Friday August 20, 2019, Mr. Cengiz has been dismissed from the East Turkistan Parliament in Exile, permanently.

We again would like to make it clear–both to the international community, to international counter terrorism researchers, and our fellow East Turkistanis—that Mr. Anwar Yusuf Turani, Mr. Ismail Cengiz, and their accomplices, can never become representatives of the East Turkistan Government in Exile, and they do not in any way represent the East Turkistan Government in Exile of the East Turkistani people in any capacity.

This statement should also serve as a public notice to Mr. Anwar Turani and Mr. Ismail Cengiz to immediately cease and desist from fraudulently claiming any current affiliation with the East Turkistan Government in Exile.