East Turkistan Government-in-Exile

The territory of East Turkistan is administered by the People's Republic of China as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a situation that the East Turkistan Government in Exile considers an illegitimate military occupation. The position of the ETGE is that East Turkistan is a distinct nation with a long history of independence.[3] The ETGE doesn't consider themselves as "separatists" because they believe that, "you can't separate from something you don't belong to."[4] The position of the People's Republic of China holds that China had "peacefully liberated Xinjiang" in 1949, that East Turkistan / Xinjiang has long been a part of China, that East Turkistan has not been independent but its de facto independence as the First East Turkistan Republic between 1933 and 1933 and the Second East Turkistan Republic between 1944 and 1949 was a result "hostile forces in and outside China, especially separatists, religious extremists and terrorists, who have tried to split China and break it apart by distorting history and facts."[5]

The East Turkistan Government in Exile was formally declared on September 14, 2004 in room HC-6 of the US Capitol in Washington DC by members of the global East Turkistani / Uyghur community. Ahmat Igambardi, who had previously been the Chairman of the first East Turkistan International Congress created in 1992, was elected as president and Anwar Yusuf Turani was elected as Prime Minister.[1]

The East Turkistan Government in Exile describes itself as an exile government that seeks to end China's occupation and colonization of East Turkistan, currently known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, and seeks to restore East Turkistan's independence as a secular, pluralistic, and democratic Republic that guarantees Human Rights and Freedom for all.[6] The East Turkistan Government in Exile has convened 8 General assemblies since its inception in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2019. The organization itself is based primarily in Washington DC, where a large Uyghur diaspora lives, but has members in over 12 countries. Although China protested the establishment of the East Turkistan Government in Exile and considers a number of "Uighur separatists", who refer to their homeland as East Turkistan, as "terrorists," there are no links between the ETGE and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement.[7]

Salih Hudayar is a young East Turkistan independence leader, political activist, business consultant, and graduate student. He founded the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement in June 2017 and launched a global movement to openly advocate for the restoration of East Turkistan's independence. Hudayar fled East Turkistan with his family in 20000 and grew up in Oklahoma.[14] Since 2018, Hudayar has been the voice of those struggling East Turkistan independence's independence.[15]

Previous Prime Ministers of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile were Abdulehed Nur, Ismail Cengiz, and Anwar Yusuf Turani.

The ETGE engages in a wide range of awareness raising and advocacy campaigns about the human rights situation for Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan . It explicitly advocates for the restoration of East Turkistan's independence[16] concentrating on the United States Congress in Washington, the Canadian Government, EU member states, NATO, Japan, and India.[17] In March 2020, members of the East Turkistan Government in Exile and the East Turkistani community, led by newly elected Prime Minister Salih Hudayar, met with Representative Ted Yoho[18] and asked him to deliver a speech on East Turkistan at the US House of Representatives. Congressman Ted Yoho described East Turkistan as an "occupied country" and condemned China for its genocide of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples.[19][20]

Although the East Turkistan Government in Exile doesn't have a stated political leaning, it is assumed that they are more right leaning given its Prime Minister's close interactions with conservative members of the US Congress,[18] consistent appearance on conservative media,[21][22][23] including a guest appearance on Steve Bannon's War Room,[24] and its overall nationalistic rhetoric pushing for the independence of East Turkistan. In November 2019, retired US Air Force Brigadier General Robert Spalding, the former Director of Strategic Planning, at the US National Security Council and Joseph Bosco, the former China Director at the US Department of Defense along with other American analysts had attended and gave speeches at the ETGE's 8th General Assembly in Washington, DC.[25]

In June 2020, the East Turkistan Government in Exile spearheaded an effort by pro-independence Uyghur, Manchu, and Tibetan groups to oppose "Chinese imperialism in all forms" and sent a joint letter to the US State Department, the Council of the European Union, and the Foreign Ministries of the India, Japan, and the UK rejecting "Chinese occupation," and calling on the "international community to help bring about a democratic resolution that gives complete national independence for East Turkistan, Manchura, South Mongolia, and Tibet."[26]

The East Turkistan Government in Exile praised the passage of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act[27] and thanked President Donald J Trump and the US Congress. The ETGE stated, "we hope this will the first step towards restoring freedom and independence to East Turkistan.”[28]

• http://east-turkistan.net/ East Turkistan Government in Exile
• http://twitter.com/ETExileGov East Turkistan Government in Exile Twitter Account
• http://nationalawakening.org/ East Turkistan National Awakening Movement