Salih Hudayar says the situation in East Turkestan is a global concern

He made the remark while participating in a virtual discussion organised by the Asian Human Rights Forum.

“The situation in East Turkestan is not just a regional issue. It’s a global concern that demands the immediate international attention of the international community and action. East Turkestan, an occupied country located in the heart of Asia, in Central Asia, has a history of over 6,000 years,” he was quoted as saying by ANI.

Hudyara added, “Unfortunately, this legacy has been under threat since 1876, when the Manchu Qing Empire invaded and subsequently annexed East Turkestan in 1876 and subsequently annexed it in 1884, renaming East Turkestan to Xinjiang, which translates to the colony or the new territory in the Chinese language. However, the people of East Turkestan never gave up their struggle to reclaim their independence.”

He further highlighted that the people of East Turkestan are facing a brutal campaign of colonization and genocide by the Chinese government for over 70 years.

“For the past 74 years, the people of East Turkestan have endured a brutal campaign of colonization, genocide and occupation by the Chinese government. These campaigns of genocide include mass internment, forced sterilization, systematic rape, organ harvesting, torture, forced enslavement and forced indoctrination. At the very moment, millions of our people remain locked up in concentration camps, while millions more have been given official sentences for so-called crimes of separatism or for simply being in prisons,” he said.

“At the same time, over 890,000 of our children are currently forcibly separated from their families and put into state-run institutions or internment camps aimed at erasing their identity and assimilating them into what is essentially so-called loyal Chinese citizens, as the Chinese government calls it,” he said.

He highlighted that mosques and other religious sites have also been destroyed and practising Islam or any other religion in the country is criminalised.

“Unfortunately, even our religious and cultural identity is under siege. More than 16,000 mosques and other religious sites have been destroyed. Practising Islam or any other religion for that matter in East Turkestan has been effectively criminalized. Thousands of our scholars and intellectuals have been given prison sentences anywhere from 15 years to life imprisonment for simply advocating for the practice of our religion, for advocating for retaining our history, advocating for retaining our culture,” he said.