Demonstrations were held in various cities across the globe including Washington to commemorate East Turkistan's National Day of Mourning. Protestors called for decisive actions against China's ongoing "genocide and colonization in Xinjiang".
The protests were organised by the East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) and the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement (ETNAM) in Istanbul, The Hague, Washington, DC, and Edmonton on Wednesday afternoon.
"Seventy-two years ago today, on December 22, 1949, the independent East Turkistan Republic was overthrown by the People's Republic of China, resulting in the formal annexation of East Turkistan into China," a statement by ETGE read.
The demonstrators urged their host governments to take more decisive actions against China's ongoing genocide of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples.
They also urged their host governments to grant Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples fleeing China's genocide in East Turkistan refugee status and asylum.
Uyghurs in the Netherlands urged the Dutch Government to support East Turkistan's case against China at the International Criminal Court (ICC); this call was also echoed by Uyghurs in the United States and Canada.
China has been rebuked globally for the crackdown on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to mass detention camps, interfering in their religious activities and sending members of the community to undergo some form of forcible re-education or indoctrination.
Early this year, the United States become the first country in the world to declare the Chinese actions in Xinjiang as "genocide".
( With inputs from ANI )
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