Salih Hudayar
Salih Hudayar is a Uyghur-American politician known for advocating for the independence of East Turkestan. Born in the city of Atush in East Turkistan, Hudayar fled to the United States as a political refugee with his family in June 2000. Hudayar founded the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement and has since been leading the movement calling for the "restoration of East Turkistan's independence." On November 11, 2019, Hudayar was elected as the Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile.
Hudayar was born in Atush, East Turkistan and studied International Studies and Political Science at the University of Oklahoma. and holds American citizenship.
Early life and education
Hudayar was born to a Uyghur business family in Atush, East Turkistan in 1993. In 1997, shortly after the Ghulja Massacre, Chinese security forces raided his family's home and put a rifle to his head, threatening to kill them after a neighbor reported his uncle for reading an illegal book. A few years later, at the age of 7, Hudayar came to the United States with his family as political refugees. He grew up in Oklahoma and joined the Oklahoma Army National Guard while enrolled in the ROTC program in hopes of becoming a military officer, he was later given medical discharge due to a kidney condition. Hudayar studied International Studies & Political Science at the University of Oklahoma, graduating in January 2017. His Bachelor's senior capstone project was a policy proposal titled "From Central Asia to the Uyghurs: Refining the American Grand Strategy." Since 2018, he has been pursuing a Masters in National Security Studies online through the American Military University during his free time.East Turkistan National Awakening Movement
In the summer of 2017, Hudayar founded the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement and moved from Oklahoma to Washington, DC to engage in human rights and political advocacy. He is widely known as the Founder and President of the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement. In early 2018, Hudayar began to meet with members of Congress and advocate for the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act and since June 4, 2018, he has led weekly demonstrations in front of the US Capitol building and the White House to protest China's concentration camps.Calling for East Turkistan's Independence
With the official public launching of the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement on June 4, 2018, Hudayar has been leading a global movement openly advocating for the "restoration of East Turkistan's independence." In September 2019, launched a petition to the White House which got over 108,000 signatures, calling on the US Government to "prevent a 21st century Holocaust in East Turkistan" and "recognize East Turkistan as an Occupied country." On November 13, 2018, Salih Hudayar led hundreds of Uyghurs from the White House to the US Capitol in commemoration of the 85th Anniversary of the First East Turkistan Republic and the 74th Anniversary of the Second East Turkistan Republic's declaration of independence. The demonstrators called on the US Congress to pass a Uyghur Act and called for "freedom and independence for East Turkistan." Despite calls for independence being viewed as "controversial" by other Uyghur groups like the Uyghur American Association, Uyghur Human Rights Project, and the World Uyghur Congress, Hudayar has repeatedly stated that, "the only way we can ensure our freedoms and human rights is by restoring our independence and that’s the only way we can ensure our overall survival as a whole." In an interview with the Middle East Eye, Hudayar stated that Uyghurs want the United States to understand that the Uyghurs are an occupied people and that the majority of them believe that restoring East Turkistan's independence is the only way forward.On April 9, 2019, Salih Hudayar delivered a speech calling on the Free World to support East Turkistan at the newly launched Committee on the Present Danger China Roundtable. A month later, in May 2019, Hudayar was invited by Frank Gaffney to speak about China's persecution of Uyghur and other Turkic peoples at an event hosted by Save the Persecuted Christians.
In July 2019, the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement published 124 coordinates of "suspected concentration camps" in East Turkistan, Hudayar told the Washington Free Beacon that ETNAM wanted the world to know about these locations as they feared "China might be preparing for a 21st Century Holocaust." In October 2019, the Agence France-Presse interviewed Salih Hudayar regarding China's destruction of Uyghur graves and cultural sites. Hudayar told the AFP that China was destroying historical sites and cemeteries to disconnect Uyghurs from their history and their ancestors and "eradicate any evidence" of who the Uyghurs are. In November 2019, Hudayar attended a pro-Hong Kong rally in Washington, DC where he told Voice of America that "Uyghurs stand with the people of Hong Kong, and if Hong Kong falls then Hong Kong face the same situation we are going through."
On June 6, 2020 he used social media to deliver a fiery speech opposing "China's imperialism in East Turkistan, Manchuria, South Mongolia, and Tibet" In his speech, he asserted that East Turkistan was an independent country that is currently occupied by China.
East Turkistan Government-in-Exile
Following Hudayar's speech at the Committee on the Present Danger, the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile appointed Salih Hudayar as their Ambassador to the United States. As Ambassador, Hudayar continued to advocate for Uyghurs' human rights and East Turkistan's independence. In an interview, Hudayar told Fox News that China was harvesting the organs of Uyghurs. On November 11, 2019, Hudayar was elected as Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile at the 8th General Assembly of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile. The next day, the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement held a press conference where they released nearly 500 coordinates of suspected concentration camps, prisons, and labor camps. Later that afternoon, Hudayar led a demonstration to commemorate the independence of the former East Turkistan Republics and to bring attention to what he described as a genocide of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples. In an interview with NPR, Hudayar stated that that Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan want independence, he also stated that East Turkistan Government in Exile doesn't consider themselves as "separatists" because they believe that, "you can't separate from something you don't belong to."In March 2020, Salih Hudayar led an East Turkistan delegation and held meetings with numerous Senators and Representatives. During his meeting with Representative Ted Yoho, Hudayar asked him to deliver a speech on East Turkistan at the US House of Representatives. Congressman Ted Yoho described East Turkistan as an "occupied country" and condemned China for its genocide of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples. Hudayar condemned the "slave labor" of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples and accused China of colonizing East Turkistan and enslaving the Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples. In April 2020, Hudayar appeared as a special guest on Steve Bannon's War Room Pandemic and criticized Muslim countries and leaders for remaining silent to China's atrocities against Turkic Muslims in East Turkistan.