The below statement is attributed to Mr. Ghulam Osman Yaghma, President of the East Turkistan Government in Exile.
Greetings and Peace be upon you, my fellow brothers and sisters living in exile. Today, February 5th, 2021, is a day of importance in East Turkistan’s history while a tragic one. Twenty-four years ago today, the people of East Turkistan, unable to bear Chinese oppression no longer, rose up to show their grievances against China’s assimilationist genocidal policies.
Since the day China invaded our country East Turkistan, East Turkistan’s people have been subject to unbearable oppression. The Chinese invaders massacred East Turkistan’s people using every available opportunity. They killed our political leaders and replaced them with puppets that look Uyghur in appearance but are Chinese in spirit.
The Chinese invaders also killed our religious scholars, our intellectuals, our wealthy men and women, our artists and musicians, and our people from all classes under all types of pretexts. By doing this, the Chinese sought to instill fear upon our people and subjugate us. While killing our people, they also sought to deceive them with false promises and crush our people’s conscience under a fascist dictatorial style of governance unique to China.
Despite this challenging situation, our national heroes, our beloved martyrs, led the East Turkistan people and organized a peaceful demonstration against the Chinese occupation forces in Ghulja on February 5th, 1997. Unfortunately, this just and peaceful demonstration was brutally crushed by the Chinese occupation forces, showing the world how brutal and wicked they indeed were. Instead of listening to our people’s peaceful grievances, the Chinese occupation forces brutally massacred thousands of our people. Thousands were killed, while thousands more were imprisoned as part of China’s campaign of state terrorism against East Turkistan and its people.
Even though the Chinese occupation forces brutally crushed the Ghulja Revolution, it played a crucial role in awakening East Turkistan and its people. It showed the world that East Turkista’s people were willing to rise up and strive for freedom and independence at every oppurtunity.
Oh beloved East Turkistani people, let us remember this important day. Let us learn from our martyrs; let us respect our heroes, not the “heroes” that China and its occupation forces dictate for us. All the calamities that have befallen us result from China’s invasion and occupation of our country. Thus all of us must strive to restore our independence. Our existence, our very future, depends on this.
Fellow brothers and sisters, we are the people of East Turkistan! We need to take responsibility and strive to restore our country East Turkistan’s independence. We need to be wary of those who look Uyghur in appearance but act to portray our national issue as if it were a “part of China’s internal affairs.” We need to look onto our heroes, past national leaders, and revolutionaries as role models such as Abdukaldir Damolla, Sabit Abdulbaqi Damolla, Elihan Tore, Zeydin Yusup, among others. We need to respect and honor our national heroes and national leaders; we need to be loyal and vigilant.
