East Turkestan or East Turkistan,also called Uyghuristan,is a loosely-defined geographical region in the northwestern part of the People's Republic of China,which varies in meaning by context and usage. The term was coined in the 19th century by Russian Turkologists,including Nikita Bichurin,who intended the name to replace the common Western term for the region,"Chinese Turkestan",which referred to the Tarim Basin in Southern Xinjiang or Xinjiang as a whole during the Qing dynasty. Beginning in the 17th century,Altishahr,which means "Six Cities" in Uyghur,became the Uyghur name for the Tarim Basin. Uyghurs also called the Tarim Basin "Yettishar," which means "Seven Cities," and even "Sekkizshahr",which means "Eight Cities" in Uyghur. Chinese dynasties from the Han dynasty to the Tang dynasty had called an overlapping area the "Western Regions".
The Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) is a Uyghur Islamic extremist organization founded in Pakistan by Hasan Mahsum. Its stated goals are to establish an Islamic state in Xinjiang and Central Asia.
Rebiya Kadeer is an ethnic Uyghur businesswoman and political activist. Born in Altay City,Xinjiang,Kadeer became a millionaire in the 1980s through her real estate holdings and ownership of a multinational conglomerate. Kadeer held various positions in the National People's Congress in Beijing and other political institutions before being arrested in 1999 for,according to Chinese state media,sending confidential internal reference reports to her husband,who worked in the United States as a pro-East Turkistan independence broadcaster. After she fled to the United States in 2005 on compassionate release,Kadeer assumed leadership positions in overseas Uyghur organizations such as the World Uyghur Congress.
The East Turkestan independence movement is a political movement that seeks the independence of East Turkestan,a large and sparsely-populated region in northwest China,as a nation state for the Uyghur people. The region is currently administered by the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Within the movement,there is widespread support for the region to be renamed,since "Xinjiang" is seen by independence activists as a colonial name. "East Turkestan" is the best-known proposed name as it is the historical geographic name of the region and the name of the two independent states that briefly existed in the region in the first half of the 20th century.
Ahmad Tourson or Ahmad Abdulahad,is a Uyghur refugee unlawfully detained for more than seven years in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps. The detention occurred despite becoming clear early on that he was innocent. The Department of Defense reports that Tourson was born on January 26,1971,in Xinjiang Province,China,and assigned him the Internment Serial Number 201. Tourson is one of approximately two dozen detainees from the Uighur ethnic group.
Hasan Mahsum,also known as Abu-Muhammad al-Turkestani and Ashan Sumut,was an Uyghur militant who was the leader of the Turkistan Islamic Party,an Islamic extremist group suspected of having ties with Al Qaeda. He was shot dead in a counter-terrorism operation on October 2,2003 by the Pakistani Army.
The January 2007 Xinjiang raid was carried out on January 5,2007,by Chinese paramilitary police against a suspected East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) training camp in Akto County in the Pamir plateau.
Terrorism in China refers to the use of terrorism to cause a political or ideological change in the People's Republic of China. The definition of terrorism differs among scholars,between international and national bodies and across time and there is no legally binding definition internationally. In the cultural setting of China,the term is relatively new and ambiguous.
The 2008 Kashgar attack occurred on the morning of 4 August 2008,in the city of Kashgar in the Western Chinese province of Xinjiang. According to Chinese government sources,it was a terrorist attack perpetrated by two men with suspected ties to the Uyghur separatist movement. The men reportedly drove a truck into a group of jogging police officers,and proceeded to attack them with grenades and machetes,resulting in the death of sixteen officers.
The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is an international organization of exiled Uyghur groups that claims to "represent the collective interest of the Uyghur people" both inside and outside of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. The World Uyghur Congress claims to be a nonviolent and peaceful movement that opposes what it considers to be the Chinese "occupation" of 'East Turkestan' and advocates rejection of totalitarianism,religious intolerance and terrorism as an instrument of policy. It has been called the "largest representative body of Uyghurs around the world" and uses more moderate methods of human rights advocacy to influence the Chinese government within the international community in contrast to more radical Uyghur organizations.
The 2011 Kashgar attacks were a series of knife and bomb attacks in Kashgar,Xinjiang,China on July 30 and 31,2011. On July 30,two Uyghur men hijacked a truck,killed its driver,and drove into a crowd of pedestrians. They got out of the truck and stabbed six people to death and injured 27 others. One of the attackers was killed by the crowd;the other was brought into custody. On July 31,a chain of two explosions started a fire at a downtown restaurant. A group of armed Uyghur men killed two people inside of the restaurant and four people outside,injuring 15 other people. Police shot five suspects dead,detained four,and killed two others who initially escaped arrest.
Anwar Yusuf Turani is a self proclaimed ethnic Uyghur nationalist and separatist leader. Born into a family branded counter-revolutionary by the Chinese government,Turani was raised in a labor camp where he faced economic hardship and political oppression. He attended Kashgar Teacher's College and graduated from the Department of Physics in July 1983. Turani came to the United States on August 12,1988 and became the first Uyghur political asylee. In 1995,he established the East Turkistan National Freedom Center (ETNFC),a non-profit human rights organization based in Washington,D.C. He is the first person to start the East Turkistan independence movement in the United States. Having spearheaded the formation of the East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) on September 14,2004 in Washington,D.C.,Turani went on to become the first Prime Minister of the entity.
The East Turkestan Information Center is a group affiliated with the East Turkestan independence movement. It was founded in Munich,Germany in 1996,and has an office in Washington,D.C.
The Xinjiang conflict,also known as the East Turkistan conflict,Uyghur–Chinese conflict or Sino-East Turkistan conflict,is an ongoing ethnic geopolitical conflict in what is now China's far-northwest autonomous region of Xinjiang,also known as East Turkistan. It is centred around the Uyghurs,a Turkic ethnic group who constitute a plurality of the region's population.
On 26 June 2013,rioting broke out in Shanshan County,in the autonomous region of Xinjiang,China. 35 people died in the riots,including 22 civilians,two police officers and eleven attackers.
On 28 October 2013,a car ran over pedestrians and crashed in Tiananmen Square,Beijing,China,in a terrorist suicide attack. Five people died in the incident;three inside the vehicle and two others nearby. Police identified the driver as Usmen Hasan and the two passengers as his wife,Gulkiz Gini,and his mother,Kuwanhan Reyim. Dozens of people were injured.
On the early morning of Wednesday,30 July 2014,Juma Tahir,the imam of China's largest mosque,the Id Kah Mosque in northwestern Kashgar,was stabbed to death by three young male Uyghur extremists. Religious leaders across denominations condemned the attack.
Yusupbek Mukhlisi (1920–2004) was a Uyghur nationalist,former military officer,and the leader of the United Revolutionary Front of East Turkestan (URFET) who advocated for the restoration of an independent East Turkistan Republic.
The East Turkistan National Movement also known as the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement is a non-profit human rights and political advocacy organization established in June 2017 in Washington D.C. Salih Hudayar,a Uyghur American consultant and graduate student founded the group after pre-existing Uyghur organizations failed to openly call for East Turkestan independence deeming it "controversial".
The East Turkistan Government in Exile,officially the Government in Exile of the Republic of East Turkistan,is a political organization established and headquartered in Washington,D.C. by Uyghurs,Kazakhs,and other peoples from East Turkistan (Xinjiang). The ETGE claims to be the sole legitimate organization and a parliamentary-based government in exile representing East Turkistan and its people on the international stage.
Designated as a terrorist organization (15 December 2003)
Designated as a terrorist organization (November 2006)
Designated as a terrorist organization (September 2007)