Turkistan government urges global response to China’s Uighur oppression

The East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) honored the 44 Uyghurs who perished in the Urumqi fire on November 24, 2022, as well as the many more who were said to have perished as a result of China’s willful disregard under its harsh “Zero-COVID” policy.

“The Urumqi Fire tragedy is a stark reminder of the ongoing genocide and systematic oppression faced by the Uyghur and other Turkic people in occupied East Turkistan,” ETGE said in a post on X, highlighting the lasting agony of these losses.

A residential high-rise apartment building in a Uyghur-majority neighborhood of Xinjiang, Urumqi, caught fire on November 24, 2022. According to local officials, nine individuals were hurt and 10 people—all Uyghurs—died. Some questioned if Beijing’s stringent implementation of the Zero-COVID regulation hindered firefighting operations or prevented inhabitants from exiting the building, raising worries about underreporting. These allegations have been refuted by Chinese officials.

Protests were sparked by the fire in a number of Chinese and international cities. In addition to criticizing the Chinese government’s Zero-COVID policy, several demonstrators demanded that General Secretary Xi Jinping resign and that the CCP’s one-party system be abolished.

In a statement, ETGE denounced China’s conduct, “The Chinese occupation regime aims to eradicate Uyghur and Turkic culture, identity, and life itself, subjecting them to extreme neglect, deprivation, and violence as part of a broader campaign of colonization and genocide that demands immediate global attention and accountability.” In order to put a stop to these crimes and guarantee that justice is done, the ETGE urged the international community to take swift action.

ETGE said, “The pain of the people of East Turkistan is only made worse by the international community’s silence. We must put an end to China’s protracted colonialism, genocide, and occupation of East Turkistan.

A complicated and deeply ingrained human rights concern, the Uyghur issue in China centers on the systematic discrimination, cultural repression, and persecution of the Uyghur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang area. The Chinese government has been making more and more attempts to integrate the Uyghurs into the Han Chinese culture since 1949, when China took over Xinjiang. Uyghur cultural, religious, and linguistic activities have been severely restricted by restrictions put in place by the Chinese government throughout the years.