Respected members of the press:
Today we are here to mark the day of China's occupation of East Turkistan. The ongoing genocide and assimilation policies in East Turkistan in order to guarantee the occupation are getting more and more violent every day. On this important day when the occupation began, we are holding this press statement to demonstrate our determination in our struggle for independence, which is the only solution to all these human rights violations and genocide.
74 years ago, on October 1st, the occupying communist China declared its founding. Under the pretext of liberating East Turkistan from the Nationalist Chinese forces, they entered and occupied East Turkistan. It then eliminated all state institutions in East Turkistan and the army of the East Turkistan Republic. Under the guise of propaganda against indigenous nationalism, they imprisoned or killed East Turkistan's intellectuals, wealthy people and opinion leaders. Thus, the land was invaded and the three pillars of society - the intellectuals, the rich and the army - were deprived. The name of East Turkistan was changed to "Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region" in 1955, and the institutional occupation of East Turkistan was realized. East Turkistan, a Turkic and Islamic land, which had its own independent state institutions, education system and law, and had the right to self-government before the occupation, was transformed into a province of communist China. All rights of the people of East Turkistan were taken away. All natural wealth of East Turkistan was plundered by the occupying China.
After the occupation, China started to implement an assimilation policy throughout East Turkistan. The people of East Turkistan were subjected to unprecedented oppression, persecution and genocide policies. Uyghur and other Turkic peoples, the landowners of East Turkistan, were subjected to genocide through direct killing, extrajudicial execution, and life imprisonment. The Chinese regime has resorted to all forms of persecution to assimilate and Chineseize the people.
It practiced all kinds of physical torture, organ theft, rape, insult, racism, unlawful arrest, deprivation of freedom of religious belief, confiscation of assets, forced abortion and sterilization. There have been arrests and killings of opinion leaders and intellectuals in East Turkistan. Destroyed mosques, mausoleums and other historical shrines and sites in East Turkistan. Forced East Turkistanis to work as slave laborers in Chinese factories. Under the name of the sibling family project, it trampled on the values of the family institution in East Turkistan. It built children's camps and subjected children to boarding school starting from primary school. It deprived parents of the right to teach and promote Uyghur language, culture and values to their own children. It has even made it state policy to give children whose parents have been killed or locked up in camps to the Chinese as children.
In East Turkistan, occupying China has carried out a step-by-step assimilation policy at regular intervals. Between 1955 and 1965, hundreds of thousands of East Turkistan scholars, intellectuals and clergy were massacred under the guise of a policy against local nationalism. Mosques and madrasas, where education had been going on since the Qarakhanids, were closed or destroyed. Between 1966 and 1976, during the "cultural revolution", nearly a million East Turkestanis were kept under control, and all historical material heritage was destroyed and burned as relics of the past. Millions of Han Chinese were transferred from the interior of China, changing the demographic and ethnic structure of East Turkistan. Then, under the name of the reform era and the "Development of the Western Document" project, it divided the local wealth of East Turkistan to the inner provinces of China. In 2004, under the name of "Dual Language Education", he restricted the use of Uyghur as a language of education in schools. By 2017, Uyghur language was banned even in primary schools. In 2013, when Xi came to power, harsh control was introduced in East Turkestan under the name of "Combating Religious Extremism". In 2014, millions of people were imprisoned in "concentration camps" that began to be built.
In short, all these brutal murders that China is practicing in East Turkistan violate all the articles in the universal declaration of human rights. Even more, China is committing the crime of genocide in East Turkistan. As a matter of fact, in 2021, a Uyghur court established by a panel of independent jurists in London ruled that the Chinese regime committed genocide in East Turkistan. In the parliaments of the EU, America, Czech, Canada, Japan, Lithuania, France, Taiwan, China's actions in East Turkistan have been recognized as genocide.
China's occupation policy in East Turkistan is not only a threat to East Turkistan, but also a danger to neighboring countries, international order and peace. All the massacres, assimilation and genocide described as the violence of the century during China's 74-year occupation are the results of this occupation. These oppressions caused by the occupation will end only and only when the occupation ends.
People all over the world must speak out against the persecution of the people of East Turkistan. Not only for the sake of the people of East Turkistan, but also for their own sake. The Islamic world and Muslims and members of other religions must speak out. Because China is committing all these persecutions against Muslims and members of all religions in East Turkistan. Because China is against all religions and is expansionist. It exports authoritarianism and oppression to the international community. What is happening in East Turkistan today must be prevented from manifesting in another part of the world tomorrow.
As the International Union of East Turkistan Organizations;
1. We demand that all states recognize East Turkistan as a territory occupied by China and support our struggle for independence through legitimate means.
2. We call on the UN, the EU, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Organization of Turkic States and all other States to take action to stop China's racist attitude, restrictions on human rights and freedom of belief, and the practice of "Modern Nazi Torture Camp" under the pretext of "terrorism and religious extremism" and to stop the genocide in East Turkistan.
3. We call on the UN General Assembly and the UN High Commission for Human Rights to appoint a special representative for East Turkistan, send an independent monitoring team and hold a negotiating session.
4. 4. We call on governments and international organizations to exert diplomatic pressure on China to address the human rights violations and cultural repression in East Turkistan.
5. 5. We encourage all consumers and businesses around the world to be aware of supply chains that may involve forced labor from East Turkistan and take steps to ensure ethical sourcing of products.
With Respect and Greetings:
Hidayet Oğuzhan
International Union of East Turkistan Organizations
