Ankara [Turkey], April 27 : The East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) has called for urgent international recognition of the genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan, denouncing China's ongoing colonisation, mass detentions, and destruction of cultural identity.
At the "Colonial Crimes Conference" in Ankara, ETGE representatives urged countries, particularly Turkiye and the broader Islamic world, to act rather than remain silent.
Fatmagul Cakan, head of the Committee on Media, Communication, and Information of the East Turkistan Parliament in Exile, delivered a detailed presentation outlining China's systematic campaign against East Turkistan. According to an ETGE release, Cakan described how Chinese authorities renamed the region "Xinjiang" meaning "New Territory" as part of a broader colonial effort to erase the region's identity, nationhood, and statehood.
Citing China's own 2020 White Paper, Cakan said more than 7.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic groups are detained in what China calls "vocational education centres," which the ETGE describes as concentration camps. Each year, an estimated 25,000 to 50,000 Uyghur youths are systematically murdered for organ harvesting, according to the ETGE release.
Cakan highlighted additional violations, including the forced separation of at least one million Uyghur children from their families, a 60 per cent drop in Uyghur birth rates due to sterilisations and forced abortions, and the destruction or cultural repurposing of more than 16,000 mosques and sacred sites. The suppression of the Uyghur language, Islamic faith, and traditional practices has also been extensively enforced.
She asserted that these actions fulfil every criterion for genocide as defined by the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, including mass detainment, prevention of births, forcible transfer of children, torture, and the obliteration of religious and cultural identity.
In her closing remarks, Cakan called on the international community, Turkiye, the Turkic realm, and the Islamic world to officially recogniSe the genocide in East Turkistan. She emphasized that East Turkistan must be acknowledged as a Turkic nation under Chinese occupation and that the global community must support its pursuit of independence, according to the ETGE release.
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