dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

Atty F. Bulent YildirimPresident of IHH Humanitarian Relief FoundationWhy East Turkistan Symposium?With its geopolitical location and rich underground resources, such as oil,gold, uranium and coal, East Turkestan has always attracted the interest of itsneighbors. China, with its long record of exploiting the region’s resources andattempts at genocide, ethnic and religious assimilation, as well as human rightsviolations, has blocked the reporting of regional developments to the world; to thisend China attempts to isolate the region from the rest of the world by controllingthe use of means of communication.The human rights breaches perpetrated by China have been widelydocumented in reports from international human rights organizations and reportsleaked to world public opinion by the population of East Turkestan. China haseven attempted the mass slaughter of the local population and has subjected EastTurkistanis within the Chinese borders to policies of arbitrary detention andtorture, extrajudicial killing and executions, forced abortions, sterilization, exile,bans on religious education and worship, restrictions on the use of public services,the intentional spread of AIDS and similar lethal, infectious diseases, forcedlabor, forced migration for employment, restrictions on traveling and movement,and control of the means of correspondence and communication; such policieshave been made a part of daily life in East Turkestan.The question of East Turkestan has ceased to be an internal problem; due tounjust Chinese practices it has now become a humanitarian problem for the entireworld. Therefore, all civilian and state authorities, all parliaments, all NGOs,all international tribunals, the United Nations and similar international bodiesworldwide, in particular Turkey and other Turkic republics have a responsibilityto bring Chinese oppression to an end. The UN recognizes the East Turkestanterritory; therefore, the UN Security Council should decide in favor of the269