Washington, DC – As the Chinese occupation of East Turkistan enters its 75th year, Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples endure genocide, colonization, and occupation while desperately looking to the international community for support. Yet, those who loudly proclaim their solidarity with Muslims—the governments of Pakistan and Turkiye—have chosen to increase their alliance with China, the very regime orchestrating one of the most heinous atrocities of our time and the worst attack on Islam and Muslims in history. Their betrayal cuts deeply, as it not only undermines their claims to moral leadership but also strengthens China’s efforts to eradicate East Turkistan and its people.
East Turkistan, the cradle of Turkic civilization, has been home to Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples for millennia. Its people embraced Islam as early as the 10th century, making it a flourishing center of Islamic culture and scholarship. On October 12, 1949, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), led by the atheist Chinese Communist Party, invaded East Turkistan and overthrew the independent East Turkistan Republic on December 22, 1949. Ever since, China has waged a brutal campaign of colonization, assimilation, and occupation.
Following Xi Jinping’s rise to power in 2013, the PRC launched the ongoing genocide in May 2014, and since then, the Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic predominantly Muslim peoples of East Turkistan face relentless genocide at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-led PRC. The PRC has destroyed or damaged over 16,000 mosques, burned millions of Qurans and other Islamic texts, banned Ramadan, and even criminalized many Muslim names and the Islamic greeting “Assalam Alaikum” in occupied East Turkistan. These actions are part of a systematic effort to eradicate Islam and the predominantly Muslim population of East Turkistan and replace it with state-controlled atheism and Chinese colonists.
The scale of the atrocities is staggering. Millions of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims have been sent to concentration camps, subjected to torture, enslaved through forced labor, and even killed for their organs, which are then sold to wealthy Muslims as “halal organs.” Over 578,500 have been sentenced to anywhere from 5 years to life for so-called “extremist crimes” like “growing a beard,” “learning the Quran,” “having performed the sacred Islamic pilgrimage of Hajj,” or “wearing a hijab,” in addition to refusing to drink alcohol or eat pork.
Hundreds of thousands of East Turkistani women have been forcibly sterilized, while more than 3.7 million babies have been forcibly aborted. Uyghur and other Turkic Muslim women are being forced to marry atheist Chinese men in what is nothing less than state-sponsored rape. Uyghur and other Turkic children have been torn from their families, with nearly a million interned in state-run “orphanages” and “boarding schools” where they are stripped of their language, culture, Islamic faith, and identity and indoctrinated to become atheists loyal to the CCP and the Chinese state. These actions are a calculated strategy of cultural and physical eradication.
Yet, as this genocide unfolds, Turkiye and Pakistan—two prominent Muslim nations that claim to be co-religionists and brothers of the Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims of East Turkistan—have not only remained silent but actively deepened their alliances with Beijing. Turkiye’s betrayal is particularly glaring. Despite sharing cultural, ethnic, historical, and religious ties with Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples of East Turkistan, Turkiye has actively embraced a “Beijing First Policy,” betraying its Turkic kin in East Turkistan following the signing of a secret military cooperation agreement in December 1996, including joint production of surface-to-surface WS-1 missiles.
Turkiye would go on to play a key role in helping China subvert and crush the nascent East Turkistan independence movement in Central Asia from 1997–2001. While China was actively persecuting their Turkic kin in East Turkistan, the Turkish government, including the “nationalist” MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) of Turkiye, awarded Chinese President Jiang Zemin with the Order of the State, the highest Turkish medal, in April 2000 as a symbol of Turkiye’s loyalty to its “Beijing First” policy.
In 2009, then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the Urumchi massacre as “genocide,” giving false hope to Uyghurs worldwide, only to turn around in 2010 and sign an 8-point treacherous strategic cooperation agreement, including cooperation on “security,” with China. Turkiye further pledged to help China crackdown on so-called “separatism and terrorism”—terms Beijing uses to justify its genocidal policies in East Turkistan. More recently, in July 2024, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan visited East Turkistan and China to solidify this betrayal further. Lavishing praise on China’s “development” in the region, Fidan reaffirmed Turkiye’s commitment to cooperation with Beijing on “counter-terrorism” and its opposition to “anti-China activities” that would harm China’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Turkiye’s actions in early 2025 reveal an even darker chapter of this betrayal. Almost every week, dozens of Uyghur refugees are being arrested and detained in deportation centers in Turkiye, awaiting to be handed over to China—a move tantamount to signing their death warrants. Just last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held a press conference with national and international media organizations. He stated that, in the coming period, Turkiye is determined to further its cooperation with China, no doubt at the expense of East Turkistan and its people. This betrayal of the East Turkistani people, who view Turkiye as a historical, cultural, and ethnic ally and kin, represents not only a profound moral failure but also a repudiation of Turkiye’s own identity as the self-proclaimed leader of the Turkic world.
Pakistan’s role is equally egregious and longstanding. Despite being founded to be a sanctuary for Muslims, Pakistan has become a leading supporter of the most heinous ongoing attack against Muslims in history. Following China’s occupation of the Muslim heartland of East Turkistan in December 1949, instead of condemning the Chinese occupation, Pakistan became the first Muslim nation to recognize the People’s Republic of China in 1950. Over the decades, Islamabad has aligned itself more closely with Beijing, becoming its “all-weather ally,” handing over Uyghur refugees to China and endorsing the PRC’s oppressive colonial and genocidal policies. Following the launch of the ongoing campaign of genocide, Pakistan has repeatedly supported China’s genocidal campaigns, echoing China’s propaganda and praising China’s genocide in East Turkistan as a “remarkable achievement in the field of human rights” and “anti-terrorism.”
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) further illustrates Islamabad’s complicity. This infrastructure project, connecting Kashgar in East Turkistan to Gwadar in Balochistan, represents a colonial pipeline enabling Beijing to exploit East Turkistan’s resources while cementing its occupation and expanding Beijing’s influence across South Asia. Just last week, Pakistan and China announced plans to expand CPEC, demonstrating its prioritization of economic ties with Beijing over its responsibility and Islamic obligations to its fellow Muslims in East Turkistan.
These betrayals by Turkiye and Pakistan serve as dangerous precedents. As two prominent Muslim-majority nations, their actions serve as models for other Muslim countries to adopt similar policies of silence and complicity. Nations that might otherwise have stood in solidarity with East Turkistan now follow the lead of Ankara and Islamabad, prioritizing economic gains over their Islamic duty towards their fellow Muslims in occupied East Turkistan. This domino effect creates an alarming normalization of abandoning the oppressed Muslims of East Turkistan in exchange for political and financial advantages.
The hypocrisy of Turkiye and Pakistan becomes even more pronounced when contrasted with India’s response to China’s campaign of colonization and occupation in Tibet. India, a predominantly Hindu nation, has, since the 1950s, provided refuge to Tibetans fleeing Chinese occupation, hosting the Tibetan Government in Exile in Dharamsala and championing their cause. Meanwhile, Turkiye and Pakistan, despite their claims to defend Islam, have aligned themselves with the most anti-Islamic regime in history. Their actions expose the hollowness of their rhetoric and their moral bankruptcy.
The East Turkistani people do not seek pity; they demand action. East Turkistan’s struggle is a litmus test for the world’s commitment to justice and human dignity and, equally importantly, it is a litmus test of the Islamic world’s, especially Turkiye and Pakistan’s, commitment to their own faith. The international community, including Muslim nations, must hold Turkiye and Pakistan accountable for their hypocrisy and complicity. Governments, organizations, and individuals must pressure these nations to end their treacherous collaboration with Beijing’s genocidal regime.
For the people of East Turkistan, the fight to restore their independence is existential, as they only have two choices: independence or eradication. The PRC and its atheist CCP’s efforts to erase us will not succeed. Our struggle will continue until East Turkistan is free and independent once again, our culture and faith are restored, and our people are safe from oppression and subjugation.
East Turkistan will not forget those who stood with us—or those who betrayed us. It is up to the world to decide which side of history it wants to stand on.
Salih Hudayar
Salih Hudayar is the Foreign Affairs and Security Minister of theEast Turkistan Government in Exileand Leader of the East Turkistan National Movement. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter)@SalihHudayarfor further insights and updates.
