[News] Inside the World Uyghur Congress: The US-backed right-wing regime change network seeking the ‘fall of China’
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Fri Mar 6 14:32:47 EST 2020
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/03/05/world-uyghur-congress-us-far-right-regime-change-network-fall-china/
Inside the World Uyghur Congress: The US-backed right-wing regime
change network seeking the ‘fall of China’
Ajit Singh - March 5, 2020
------------------------------------------------------------------------
While posing as a grassroots human rights organization, the World
Uyghur Congress is a US-funded and directed separatist network
that has forged alliances with far-right ethno-nationalist groups.
The goal spelled out by its founders is clear: the destabilization
of China and regime change in Beijing.
By Ajit Singh
In recent years, few stories have generated as much outrage in the West
as the condition of Uyghur Muslims in China. Reporting on the issue is
typically represented through seemingly spontaneous leaks of information
and expressions of resistance by Uyghur human rights activists
struggling to be heard against a tyrannical Chinese government.
True or not, nearly everything that appears in Western media accounts of
China’s Uyghur Muslims is the product of a carefully conceived media
campaign generated by an apparatus of right-wing, anti-communist Uyghur
separatists funded and trained by the US government.
A central gear in Washington’s new Cold War against China, this network
has a long history of relationships with the US national security state
and far-right ultra-nationalists.
At the heart of this movement is the World Uyghur Congress
<https://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/introducing-the-world-uyghur-congress/>(WUC),
an international Uyghur organization that claims to be engaged in a
“peaceful, nonviolent, and democratic” struggle for “human rights.” The
WUC considers China’s northwestern Xinjiang region to be East Turkestan,
and sees its Uyghur Muslim inhabitants not as Chinese citizens but
instead as members of a pan-Turkic nation stretching from Central Asia
to Turkey.
As this investigation establishes, the WUC is not a grassroots movement,
but a US government-backed umbrella for several Washington-based outfits
that also rely heavily on US funding and direction. Today, it is the
main face and voice of a separatist operation dedicated to destabilizing
the Xinjiang region of China and ultimately toppling the Chinese government.
While seeking to orchestrate a color revolution with the aim of regime
change in Beijing, the WUC and its offshoots have forged ties with the
Grey Wolves, a far-right Turkish organization that has been actively
engaged in sectarian violence from Syria to East Asia.
None of these links seem to have troubled the WUC’s sponsors in
Washington. If anything, they have added to the network’s appeal,
consolidating it as one of the most potent political weapons the US
wields in its new Cold War against China.
*The World Uyghur Congress, brought to you by the US government’s
regime change arm*
The WUC promotes itself as an “opposition movement against Chinese
occupation of East Turkistan [sic]” that “represent[s] the collective
interests” and is “the sole legitimate organization of the Uyghur people
both in East Turkistan and abroad.”
Headquartered in Munich, Germany, the WUC is an international umbrella
organization
<https://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/affiliate-organizations/>with a
network of 33 affiliates in 18 countries around the world. The WUC and
its affiliates — particularly the Uyghur American Association, Uyghur
Human Rights Project, and Campaign for Uyghurs — are cited in nearly
every Western media report on China’s Uyghur Muslims. *
*
From its inception, the WUC has been backed by the National Endowment
for Democracy
<https://thegrayzone.com/2018/08/20/inside-americas-meddling-machine-the-us-funded-group-that-interferes-in-elections-around-the-globe/>
(NED). With millions in US taxpayer money, the NED and its subsidiaries
have backed opposition parties, “civil society” groups, and media
organizations in countries targeted by the US for regime change.
Philip Agee, the late CIA whistleblower, described the work of the NED
as a more sophisticated version of the old-fashioned covert operations
that Langley used to engineer. “Nowadays,” Agee explained, “instead of
having the CIA going around behind the scenes and trying to manipulate
the process by inserting money here and giving instructions secretly and
so forth, they have now a sidekick, which is this National Endowment for
Democracy, NED.”
Agee’s assessment was confirmed by Allen Weinstein, a former Trotskyist
and founding member of the NED. Weinstein told the Washington Post in
1991
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1991/09/22/innocence-abroad-the-new-world-of-spyless-coups/92bb989a-de6e-4bb8-99b9-462c76b59a16/>,
“A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”
When the WUC was founded in 2004, the NED’s then-senior Asia program
officer, Louisa Coan Greve, praised the move
<https://www.voanews.com/archive/new-uighur-leader-calls-non-violent-opposition-china-2004-06-30>as
a “great accomplishment.”
The NED has provided the WUC with millions of dollars in funding
<https://www.ned.org/wp-content/themes/ned/search/grant-search.php?organizationName=World+Uyghur+Congress®ion=&projectCountry=&amount=&fromDate=&toDate=&projectFocus%5B%5D=&search=&maxCount=25&orderBy=Year&start=1&sbmt=1>,
including $1,284,000 since 2016 alone, and millions of dollars in
additional funding to WUC-affiliate organizations. The grants are
earmarked for training Uyghur activists and youth in media advocacy and
lobbying “to raise awareness of and support for Uyghur human rights,”
with a particular focus on US Congress, European Parliament, and the
United Nations.
In 2018, the NED provided the WUC and its offshoots with close to
$665,000, according to the former organization’s website
<https://www.ned.org/region/asia/xinjiang-east-turkestan-china-2018/>.
The NED has played a direct role in molding the direction and politics
of the WUC. Besides honeycombing WUC-affiliated organizations with NED
operatives like Coan Greve, the NED has sponsored and organized annual
“Leadership Training Seminars”
<https://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/world-uyghur-congress-set-to-stage-its-4th-general-assembly-and-leadership-training-workshop-in-tokyo/>for
the WUC since 2007.
Many leading members of the WUC have also worked in senior positions for
Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
These US government-run news agencies were created by the CIA
<https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/26/archives/worldwide-propaganda-network-built-by-the-cia-a-worldwide-network.html>during
the Cold War to project propaganda into China and the Soviet Union, and
to stir up opposition to communism on these countries’ frontiers.
Unsurprisingly, the WUC is tightly aligned with Washington’s foreign
policy agenda and hostile new Cold War strategy which seeks to contain
and impede the rise of China. The WUC regularly meets with and lobbies
US and Western politicians, urging them to isolate and “increase the
pressure on China”;
<https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchen-uiguren-weltkongress-china-cables-1.4696618>
ratchet up economic sanctions;
<https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3013293/uygur-leader-dolkun-isa-urges-pressure-china-he-receives-us-award>curb
ties with China
<https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/uighur-exile-leader-calls-on-switzerland-to-curb-china-ties/45397286>,
and withdraw Western companies from the region.
The WUC celebrated
<https://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/press-release-world-uyghur-congress-lauds-passage-of-uighur-act-of-2019/>the
passage of The Uighur Act of 2019
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/04/us-house-approves-uighur-act-calling-for-sanctions-on-chinas-politburo-xinjiang-muslim>by
the US House of Representatives, in December 2019. The bill, which
called on the Trump administration to enact sanctions against the
Chinese government, was the latest in a string of anti-China achievements.
This regime change apparatus has made its strongest impact through the
media, providing a constant source of self-styled Uyghur dissidents and
human rights horror stories to eager Western reporters. The exposure the
WUC and its affiliates receive extends well beyond corporate media
outlets known for echoing Washington’s foreign policy talking points;
even ostensibly adversarial, progressive, and left-wing media such as
The Intercept
<https://theintercept.com/2019/12/29/why-dont-we-care-about-chinas-uighur-muslims/>,
Democracy Now!
<https://www.democracynow.org/appearances/rushan_abbas>and Jacobin
Magazine
<https://jacobinmag.com/2019/06/china-uyghur-persecution-concentration-camps>
have provided them with an uncritical platform.
While adopting the WUC’s narrative, these self-styled alternative
outlets never seem to mention the close bonds the organization and its
offshoots have forged with the US national security state and right-wing
ethno-nationalist movements abroad. But the relationships are no secret.
In fact, they appear to be a source of pride for WUC leadership.
*The Far-Right Roots of the Uyghur “Human Rights” Movement*
Behind its carefully constructed human rights brand, the Uyghur
separatist movement emerged from elements in Xinjiang which view
socialism as “the enemy of Islam,” and which sought Washington’s support
from the outset, presenting themselves as eager foot-soldiers for US
hegemony.
The founding father of this separatist movement was Isa Yusuf Alptekin.
His son, Erkin Alptekin, founded the WUC and served as the
organization’s inaugural president. The senior Alptekin is referred to
as “our late leader”
<https://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/dolkun-isa-statement-on-indias-recent-visa-cancellation/>by
the WUC and current President Dolkun Isa.
Born at the turn of the 20th century, Alptekin was the son of a local
government Xinjiang official. He received a largely Islamic education as
a youth, as his family intended for him to be a religious scholar.
During the Chinese Civil War that raged between the nationalists and
communists from 1945 to ’49, Alptekin served under the nationalist
Kuomintang (KMT) administration
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02634939108400758>in
Xinjiang. Throughout this period, the KMT received massive military and
economic backing from the United States
<https://books.google.ca/books?id=-IbQvd13uToC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=1.+China+1945+to+1960s+Was+Mao+Tse-tung+just+paranoid?&source=bl&ots=cJy3MeDfgD&sig=ACfU3U24J70qyNbOoz1wL1ISX0CKWmtFPA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjEnvvp-7jnAhVuHzQIHcTiB5gQ6AEwAHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=1.%20China%201945%20to%201960s%20Was%20Mao%20Tse-tung%20just%20paranoid%3F&f=false>—
including billions of dollars in cash and military hardware, along with
the deployment of tens of thousands of US marines — in an effort to
quash the Chinese revolution.
At the same time
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02634939108400758>,
according to historian Linda Benson, Alptekin “became more active in
both the Guomindang [sic] and national level politics … and met several
times with [KMT leader] Chiang Kai-shek personally.” For Alptekin and
fellow travelers advancing Turkic nationalism and the region’s eventual
independence, “equally important was the necessity of protecting the
land they called East Turkestan from Soviet and Chinese communism, both
of which were viewed as real and present dangers to Islamic peoples.”
For the KMT
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02634939108400758>, Uyghur
activists like Alptekin made prime candidates for Xinjiang’s provincial
administration. As Benson explained, “[t]he essential qualification for
such appointees… was that they be anti-Communist and anti-Soviet.” In
his memoirs, Alptekin revealed that he “sought to eliminate all Russians
and leftists in the government,” and said that “schools were also
encouraged to include religious instruction in their curriculum.”
A fervent opponent of miscegenation, Alptekin worked to prevent
intermarriage
<https://books.google.ca/books?redir_esc=y&id=suuXIhetjZcC&q=%22abducted+the+moslem+wives%22#v=snippet&q=%22abducted%20the%20moslem%20wives%22&f=false>between
Han Chinese and Uyghur Muslims. During his time in government, religious
fundamentalists “attacked the houses of Han Chinese who were married to
Moslem [sic] women […] The mob abducted the Moslem wives, and in some
cases the unfortunate women were forced to marry old Moslem men.” Though
the violence killed numerous Han Chinese, it proceeded without any
government response during Alptekin’s tenure.
As the civil war wore on, Alptekin grew frustrated with the declining
power of the nationalists and met with US and British Consuls
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02634939108400758>in
Xinjiang, beseeching the twin powers to deepen their intervention in
China and the region. With the coming victory of the Chinese Revolution,
Alptekin went into exile in 1949.
Alptekin eventually settled in Turkey, emerging as the pre-eminent
leader of the Uyghur separatist movement throughout the latter half of
the 20th century. He set out to enlist international support for the
cause of East Turkestan independence, courting leading US officials and
far-right, neo-Ottomanist ideologues in Turkey.
Alptekin, holding a book, leads a demonstration in support of East
Turkestan separatism in 1966. Alptekin stands in front of a banner that
reads, “Communism is the enemy of Islam.”
The Uyghur separatist leader wrote to then-US President Richard Nixon on
several occasions, pleading for him to support East Turkestan
separatism. In a 1969 missive to the president, Alptekin declared
full-throated support for the US war on Vietnam:
<https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/208601>“We are hopeful
and pleased that the US, as a fortress of liberty, is protecting captive
nations,” he stated. Altepkin then pleaded for his “Excellency” Nixon
and the US, “the most imminent protector of captive nations”, to support
East Turkestan independence.
Alptekin wrote Nixon
<https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/208596> the following
year towarn of the evils of “Red China.” He branded the country “a great
menace which the whole world as led by the United States of America is
confronting. This menace is now in the process of evolution to engulf
the earth. If time is allowed it can upset the balance of the world to
disadvantage the free nations.”
“The whole world has reason to be apprehensive of Red China,” Alptekin
insisted to Nixon, “for it is likely to be an irresistible [sic] threat
on earth… China today is one of the biggest nations in the world where
the Marxist teach has been implemented… China may prove to be a greater
menace to all the world, and this menace is likely to cause a total
destruction to the free nations if they are not prudent and fore-sighted.”
Alptekin advised Nixon to combat the “Chinese war of world conquest” by
supporting separatist movements, namely that of East Turkestan
nationalists, and by “speeding up the process of the dismemberment of
the Chinese empire.”
Mapping out a detailed regime change strategy for Washington, Alptekin
urged the US to generate support for his cause among the “free world,”
set up an academic institute to study “every aspect” of minority
nationalities living within China, develop media propaganda targeting
minority nationalities by operating “a radio network beaming at these
peoples in their respective languages”; “devise a plan to secure [the]
collaboration” of minority nationalities and “train the children of the
non-Chinese exiles abroad.”
In 1970, Alptekin travelled to Washington to meet with members of US
Congress and address the House of Representatives
<https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/208600>.
Alptekin and fellow East Turkestan separatists met with members of US
Congress on a trip to Washington in 1970.
Forging bonds with fascistic, ethno-supremacist Turkish nationalists
While appealing for Washington’s support, Alptekin developed strong ties
with the Turkish far-right. Their bonds rested on a solid foundation of
anti-communist zeal and pan-Turkic, neo-Ottomanist nationalism.
On numerous occasions, Alptekin met with Alparslan Türkeş a fascistic,
ultra-nationalist who believed ardently in Turkish ethnic superiority
<https://thehill.com/opinion/international/394554-as-a-kingmaker-turkeys-nationalist-faction-could-bring-trouble>
over minorities like Kurds and Armenians, and for whom the eradication
of communism among the Turkic populations of Soviet Central Asia and
Xinjiang was “the dream he had most cherished”
<https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-alpaslan-turkes-1266076.html>.
Alparslan Türkeş and Isa Yusuf Alptekin
Türkeş was long-time leader of the far-right Nationalist Action Party
(MHP) and its paramilitary arm, the Grey Wolves. According to the
Washington Post, he headed a murderous group of “right-wing terrorists”
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/07/06/mounting-political-violence-pushes-turkey-toward-chaos/70b212ca-8508-4e7f-ac49-d166491a0c4d/>
who are “blindly nationalist, fascist or nearly so, and bent on the
extermination of the Communists.” The fascistic militant group killed
numerous left-wing activists, students, Kurds, and notoriously attempted
to assassinate Pope John Paul II.
With military training from the US, Türkeş co-founded the Turkish cell
<https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-19254727/turkey-s-terrorists-a-cia-legacy-lives-on>of
Operation Gladio
<https://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/16/world/evolution-in-europe-italy-discloses-its-web-of-cold-war-guerrillas.html>,
the US and NATO-backed network of “stay behind” anti-communist
paramilitary groups that carried out numerous acts of terror and
sabotage across Europe.
Alptekin appears to have shared the hateful politics of Türkeş and the
Turkish far-right, often expressing anti-Armenian views
<http://www.konyayenigun.com/roportaj/isa-yusuf-alptekin-ve-turkiyenin-siyasal-hayatina-etkileri-h93883.html>including
denial of the Armenian genocide and claims that Armenians were murderers
of innocent Turks.
The Turkish right-wing has embraced the East Turkestan separatist
movement with open arms, appealing to them as a key base of political
support. “The martyrs of East Turkestan are our martyrs,” stated Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan
<https://www.ft.com/content/f30ddb40-709c-11de-9717-00144feabdc0>, then
mayor of Istanbul, as he inaugurated a park named in honor of Alptekin,
following the death of the Uyghur nationalist in 1995.
In recent decades, the Uyghur separatist movement has deepened its
connections with Washington and the US national security state. The WUC
and its affiliate organizations — including the Uyghur American
Association, Uyghur Human Rights Project, and Campaign for Uyghurs — are
made up of individuals with direct ties to the US government, military,
and regime change establishment.
Inspired by pro-free market color revolutions spawned by the US
government in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, the WUC’s
regime change network has set out a clear goal of destabilizing China
and toppling its government.
With vow to destroy China, WUC leaders earn Western adulation and
support
In 2004, Erkin Alptekin was named the inaugural president of the WUC
<https://www.voanews.com/archive/new-uighur-leader-calls-non-violent-opposition-china-2004-06-30>.
He is the son of the far-right, ultra-nationalist father figure of the
Uyghur separatist movement, Isa Yusuf Alptekin, whose background is
explored later in this article. From 1971 to 1995, Erkin Alptekin worked
for
<https://web.archive.org/web/20100825080311/http://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/?cat=148>the
US government-funded RFE/RL media network.
Speaking at the funeral of his father, in 1995, the junior Alptekin
outlined his anti-communist, separatist views and articulated his desire
to destroy China <https://youtu.be/sb6nqWNoJt4?t=1420>: “Ten years ago
no one believed that the USSR would fall apart now you can see that.
Many Turkic countries have their freedom now. Today the same situation
applies to China. We believed in the not too distant future we will see
the fall of China and the independence of East Turkestan.”
Erkin Alptekin calling for the “fall of China” at his father’s funeral.
From the WUC film, “Uyghur Leaders in Exile.”
<https://youtu.be/sb6nqWNoJt4>
The WUC describes
<https://web.archive.org/web/20100825080311/http://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/?cat=148>Alptekin
as “close friend” of the Dalai Lama, the U.S-backed, CIA-funded
<https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/02/world/world-news-briefs-dalai-lama-group-says-it-got-money-from-cia.html>figurehead
for Tibetan separatism. “We are working very closely with the Dalai
Lama,” Alptekin told The Washington Post
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/02/23/ethnic-turmoil-roils-western-china/9a51e976-4b35-4218-82bc-3625398a69a5/>in
1999. “He is a very good example for us.”
In 2006, Erkin Alptekin was succeeded as WUC President by Rebiya Kadeer,
a self-described multi-millionaire
<https://uyghuramerican.org/article/biographical-sketch-rebiya-kadeer.html>real
estate and trading entrepreneur who profited off of China’s economic
reforms of the 1980s and claims to have once been the seventh wealthiest
individual in the country. According to The New York Times
<https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/us/politics/01gitmo.html>, Kadeer’s
“[d]issidence brought the end of her Audi, her three villas and her
far-flung business empire”. Kadeer’s husband, SIdik Rouzi, worked for US
government media outlets Voice of America and Radio Free Asia.
During her tenure as WUC President, Kadeer met with then-US President
George W. Bush on several occasions. As Bush waged his illegal war on
Iraq and persecuted Muslim American leadership under the auspices of his
so-called “war on terror,” Kadeer appealed to the US head of state to
take up the cause of Uyghur Muslims. “I was deeply honored to meet with
the President,” Kadeer stated.
<https://uyghuramerican.org/article/rebiya-kadeer-meets-president-bush-white-house.html>
She“expressed gratitude for President Bush’s demonstrated commitment to
promoting freedom and democratic reform in the PRC.”
At the 2007 Democracy & Security International Conference
<http://www.democracyandsecurity.org/index.htm>in Prague, Bush praised
Kadeer
<https://uyghuramerican.org/article/president-bush-praises-rebiya-kadeer-human-rights-defender.html>as
a human rights defender in his address before the gathering. The
conference was organized by the Prague Security Studies Institute, a
think tank that aims to advance free-market societies in post-communist
states, and the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies, an Israeli
outfit named for ultra-Zionist Republican casino baron Sheldon Adelson.
Conference partners
<http://www.democracyandsecurity.org/partners.htm>included the US
government and NATO.
Kadeer kept close relationships with the Dalai Lama and Vaclav Havel,
the leader of the ‘Velvet Revolution’ which brought down
Czechoslovakia’s communist government. Havel was a “major proponent of
NATO”
<https://www.nato.int/docu/review/articles/2012/05/07/vaclav-havel-remembering-the-big-little-man/index.html>and
instrumental to the Western military alliance’s eastward expansion.
Kadeer described Havel as
<https://uyghuramerican.org/article/open-letter-rebiya-kadeer-death-v%C3%A1clav-havel.html>“an
uncompromising advocate for truth, justice and peace” and pointed to his
political accomplishments as an example to be emulated for China. “Mr.
Havel’s vision for the Czech people […] speaks to Chinese democrats
today”, wrote Kadeer, following Havel’s death, and “contains […] the
seeds of a new era for political reform in China.”
Rebiya Kadeer pictured with Frederik Willem De Klerk, Vaclav Havel and
the Dalai Lama.
The current President of WUC is Dolkun Isa, winner of the 2019 Democracy
Award from the NED. In 2016, Isa received a human rights award from the
far-right Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, which was
established by the US government in 1993. In his acceptance speech, Isa
emphasized “the Uyghurs’ resistance to communism” and that “we will not
stop our work until we consign this destructive ideology, in the words
of Ronald Reagan, to ‘the ash heap of history.’”
Isa regularly lobbies US and Western politicians to intensify their new
Cold War agenda by enacting economic sanctions
<https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3013293/uygur-leader-dolkun-isa-urges-pressure-china-he-receives-us-award>and
curbing ties with China.
<https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/uighur-exile-leader-calls-on-switzerland-to-curb-china-ties/45397286>
Among those he has met with in recent years areTrump administration
White House officials
<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-xinjiang-usa/u-s-voices-concern-on-chinas-muslim-crackdown-sanctions-weighed-idUSKCN1LR2O2>,
right-wing Republican Senator Ted Cruz
<https://twitter.com/Dolkun_Isa/status/1023318822621798400>, the US
Consul General in Munich
<https://twitter.com/usconsmunich/status/1148894259531137024>, and the
fervently anti-China acting Director of National Intelligence, Richard
Grenell.
The @UyghurCongress
<https://twitter.com/UyghurCongress?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> president
@Dolkun_Isa <https://twitter.com/Dolkun_Isa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> met
with the American Ambassador to Germany @RichardGrenell
<https://twitter.com/RichardGrenell?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> in Berlin
to brief him on current crisis in East Turkistan & discussed ways
that the WUC could work with him in the future.
pic.twitter.com/yottOysIj6 <https://t.co/yottOysIj6>
— WorldUyghurCongress (@UyghurCongress) July 5, 2019
<https://twitter.com/UyghurCongress/status/1147058356726718465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
In November 2019, Isa attended the Halifax International Security Forum
<https://twitter.com/Dolkun_Isa/status/1198912319650185216>, a gathering
convened by NATO and the Canadian Department of National Defence. There,
he met with leading Western political and military figures.
In January 2020, Isa was hosted at an event
<https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/jewish-leaders-call-for-action-on-chinas-intolerable-treatment-of-uyghurs/>organized
by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, a right-wing British Israeli
lobby group. At the event, Isa met with with the ultra-Zionist
organization Bnei Akiva, whose leader called for
<https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/07/02/bnei-akiva-israel-palestine_n_5551749.html>the
Israeli Army “to take the foreskins of 300 Palestinians” amid Israel’s
punishing 2014 assault on the besieged Gaza Strip.
Omer Kanat <https://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/staff/omer-kanat/>serves
as the WUC’s Chairman of the Executive Committee. Kanat helped found the
WUC and has been a permanent fixture in its executive leadership. The
veteran operative has a lengthy history of work with the US government,
from serving as senior editor of Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur Service from
1999 to 2009 to covering the US wars on Iraq and Afghanistan and
interviewing the Dalai Lama for the network.
In an interview with The Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal at a 2018 NED
awards ceremony in the US Capitol building, Kanat took credit
<https://thegrayzone.com/2018/08/20/inside-americas-meddling-machine-the-us-funded-group-that-interferes-in-elections-around-the-globe/>
for furnishing many of the claims about internment camps in Xinjiang to
Western media. He conceded, however, that the WUC did not know how the
oft-repeated “millions detained” claim was arrived at aside from
“Western media estimates.”
Preparing for a color revolution, WUC offshoots staff up with
national security state operatives
Established in 1998, the Uyghur American Association (UAA) is a
Washington D.C.-based affiliate of the WUC. A long time grantee of the
NED, the UAA has received millions of dollars in funding. According to
its publicly available tax filings
<https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/541853876>,
the group works closely with the US government, particularly the US
State Department, Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC),
and US Congress’s Human Rights Commission.
“The National Endowment for Democracy has been exceptionally supportive
of UAA,” stated Nury Turkel
<https://uyghuramerican.org/article/remarks-5th-biannual-congress-uyghur-american-association-nury-turkel.html>,
former UAA President, “providing us with invaluable guidance and
assistance” along with “essential funding.”
Turkel credited the NED with enabling the UAA increase its credibility
and expand its influence. Among the top achievements he cited was a
meeting with the new Krygyzstan government “within weeks of [the former
government’s] fall from power” following the US-engineered Tulip “color
revolution” which brought a pro-Western regime to power.
Speaking at the 5th Congress of the UAA, in 2006, Turkel confirmed the
regime change agenda of the UAA, UHRP and broader Uyghur separatist
movement, stating that
<https://uyghuramerican.org/article/remarks-5th-biannual-congress-uyghur-american-association-nury-turkel.html>“as
we witnessed the ‘Tulip Revolution’ and the toppling the former
government of Kyrgyzstan, our hopes were again reinforced.”
The UAA’s leadership consists of US national security state operators
including employees of the US government, Radio Free Asia, and
military-industrial complex.
Kuzzat Altay, the nephew of Reibya Kadeer, is the current president of
the UAA. Altay is also the founder of the Uyghur Entrepreneurs Network,
which claims to offer Uyghur Americans with guidance to “start their own
business”.
<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/uen-100-by-100-project-opening-tickets-47640125899#>
In 2019, his business network hasorganized an event in collaboration
with the FBI, <https://www.instagram.com/p/B11ngW6BAf_/> the federal law
enforcement agency notorious for its surveillance of Muslim Americans
and ensnaring countless mentally troubled young Muslim American men in
manufactured terror plots.
Past presidents of UAA include Kadeer; Alim Seytoff
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/alim-seytoff-2b268927/>, a former Radio
Free Asia correspondent and current Director of RFA’s Uyghur Service;
and Ilshat Hassan Kokbore, who has worked at Booz Allen Hamilton
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilshat-kokbore-a34bb956/> since 2008.
Booz Allen is anotorious private US military and intelligence contractor
<https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/us/booz-allen-hamilton-nsa.html>that
rakes in billions of dollars in contracts with American intelligence
agencies. Edward Snowden was employed at the firm
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/booz-allen-hamilton-edward-snowden>when
he decided to blow the whistle on the National Security Agency’s
invasive, all-encompassing system of mass surveillance.
The main project spun out of the UAA and the NED is the Uyghur Human
Rights Project (UHRP). The UHRP was founded by the UAA in 2004
<https://uhrp.org/about> withthe NED as the principal source of funding
<https://uyghuramerican.org/article/uaauhrp-funding-update.html>. The
NED granted the UHRP a whopping $1,244,698 between 2016 and ’19.
The UHRP is staffed by WUC leaders <https://uhrp.org/about> like Omer
Kanat and Nury Turkel, along with former US government officials and
senior members of the NED.
Dr. Elise Anderson serves as UHRP’s Senior Program Office for Research
and Advocacy. In 2019, Anderson served as the Liu Xiaobo Fellow,
occupying a position at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China
named for the far-right Chinese dissident
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/dec/15/nobel-winner-liu-xiaobo-chinese-dissident>who
supported colonialism, US militarism and the “Westernisation” of China.
Anderson states <http://www.elisemarieanderson.com/bio/>that from 2012
to 2016, she was “based out of Ürümchi, the regional capital of
Xinjiang,” conducting research for her doctorate. The extent of her
activities in the region are unclear, as Anderson’s CV
<http://www.elisemarieanderson.com/cv/>indicates that during this time
she was also working for the US government as “Ürümchi Warden for the US
Embassy in Beijing, China, 2014–16.”
Louisa Coan Greve, the former vice president of NED, today serves as
UHRP’s Director of Global Advocacy. Greve formerly worked as Vice
President of the NED. <https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisagreve/>
Rushan Abbas, the US national security state’s favorite “human
rights activist”
Another influential organization spun out of the WUC network is the
Campaign for Uyghurs. This group is headed by Rushan Abbas, the former
Vice President of the UAA. Promoted simply as a Uyghur “human rights
activist” by Western media outlets including the supposedly adversarial
Democracy Now! <https://www.democracynow.org/appearances/rushan_abbas>,
Abbas is, in fact, a longtime US government and military operative.
Abbas boasts in her bio of her
<https://web.archive.org/web/20181207031224/https://www.isi-consultants.com/rushan-abbas/>“extensive
experience working with US government agencies, including Homeland
Security, Department of Defense, Department of State, and various US
intelligence agencies.”
While working for the military contractor L3 Technologies, Abbas served
the US government and the Bush administration’s so-called war on terror
as a “consultant at Guantanamo Bay supporting Operation Enduring
Freedom.” Abbas “also worked as a linguist and translator for several
federal agencies including work for the US State Department in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and for President George W. Bush and former First
Lady Laura Bush”. Like so many of her colleagues, Abbas enjoyed a stint
at Radio Free Asia.
While Abbas once shared her history of collaboration with the US
government in the open, she has attempted to scrub
<https://medium.com/@rsahthion/a-reddit-ama-claiming-to-be-a-uiyghur-quickly-exposes-a-cia-asset-slandering-china-1d667c098b77>biographic
information from her online presence following a disastrous publicity
appearance
<https://old.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/e9ad4n/i_am_rushan_abbas_uyghur_activist_and_survivor_of/>in
December 2019. During a Reddit’s “Ask Me Anything” question and answer
forum, participants blasted Abbas as a “CIA asset” and frequent US
government collaborator, prompting her attempt to disappear her bio from
the internet.
Besides collaborating with the US government, Abbas’ professional
experience consists of aiding the expansion of US capitalism in the
global south. She boasts work with consulting firms such as ISI
Consultants <https://www.isi-consultants.com/>which “assists US
companies to grow their business in Middle East and African markets.”
Abbas claims to have “over 15 years of experience in global business
development, strategic business analysis, business consultancy and
government affairs throughout the Middle East, Africa, CIS regions,
Europe, Asia, Australia, North America and Latin America.”
*Celebrating the Gray Wolves, proposing US and Turkish military
intervention*
Along with their extensive ties to Washington, the WUC and Uyghur
separatist movement has maintained close connections with the Turkish
far-right.
In 2015, members of the MHP-affiliated Grey Wolves formerly led by
Alparslan Türkeş attacked South Korean tourists
<https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/07/turkey-china-random-violence-become-norm-in-lgbt.html>in
Turkey, mistaking them for Chinese citizens, in protest of the situation
in Xinjiang.
Turkish MHP party leader Devlet Bahçeli defended the attacks. “How are
you going to differentiate between Korean and Chinese?” the rightist
politician questioned. “They both have slanted eyes. Does it really
matter?” Bahceli’s racist remarks coincided with the display of a Grey
Wolves banner at party’s Istanbul headquarters reading, “We crave
Chinese blood.”
The Grey Wolvesand Uyghur militantswere blamed by Thailand’s national
police
<https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/16/world/asia/thailand-suspects-uighurs-in-bomb-attack-at-bangkok-shrine.html>
and an IHS-Jane’s analyst
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/susancunningham/2015/08/24/thailands-shrine-bombing-the-case-for-turkeys-grey-wolves/#5065f17d5d3f>
of carrying out a 2015 bombing of a religious shrine in Thailand that
killed 20 people. The attack was intended as revenge against the Thai
government’s decision to repatriate a group of Uyghur Muslims to China.
Beijing had claimed
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/12/uighurs-sent-back-from-thailand-were-on-way-to-join-jihad-says-china>the
Uyghurs were en route to Turkey, Syria or Iraq to join extremist groups
fighting in the region such as the al-Qaeda-affiliated East Turkestan
Islamic Movement (ETIM), or Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP).
Months before the bombing, a group of 200 protesters waving East
Turkestan flags attacked the Thai consulate
<https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/618268/thai-consulate-general-attacked-in-turkey>in
Istanbul in response to the Uyghur repatriation. The group was
reportedly led by the Grey Wolves
<http://www.rfi.fr/en/asia-pacific/20150709-uighur-deportation-sparks-anger-turkey>and
East Turkestan Culture and Solidarity Association.
<https://finance.yahoo.com/news/anti-china-sentiment-sweeping-over-161008152.html>
The latterorganization was headed by Seyit Tümturk, who served as WUC
Vice President
<https://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/introducing-the-world-uyghur-congress/fifth-general-assembly-of-the-world-uyghur-congress/>from
2008 to 2016 and belonged to the organization’s founding pantheon.
The WUC continues to publish articles
<https://www.uyghurcongress.org/tr/alparslan-turkesin-doguturkistan-davasina-bakisi/>on
its website that praise and celebrate Alparslan Türkeş, the far-right,
ultra-nationalist founder of the Grey Wolves and long-time MHP party
leader. Its website also promotes endorsements of East Turkestan
separatism by current leaders of the MHP
<https://www.uyghurcongress.org/tr/mhp-genel-baskani-dr-bahceli-dogu-turkistan-hakli-ve-baki-kalacak-davamizdir/>
and Grey Wolves
<https://www.uyghurcongress.org/tr/ulku-ocaklari-baskani-olcay-kilavuz-soydaslarini-ziyaret-etti/>.
While building links with the Turkish far-right, leading WUC
representatives have appealed to Turkish President Erdogan to take an
interventionist role in China akin to Turkey’s actions in Libya and
Syria, where it supported the regime change efforts of the US, West and
an array of extremist proxy groups.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal in 2012, Nury Turkel argued that
<https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303513404577353272107433282>Turkey
can play a leading role in “rallying democracies” to pressure China on
Xinjiang: “As a longstanding ally of the US and a neighbor of Europe,
Turkey is uniquely well-situated to do this.”
As a first step in this strategy, Turkel proposed that Turkey “should
organize a ‘friends of Uighurs’ conference with democratic allies –
similar to the ones organized for Libya and Syria – discussing Ankara’s
vision and policy objectives with respect to the Uighur people in China.”
A Turkish soldier of the occupying force in NW Syria town of Atareb
flashes the 'Grey Wolves' hand sign to an AFP photographer. Grey
Wolves are an openly fascist Turkish ultra nationalist movement in
Turkey who hold deeply racist hatred towards the Kurds.
#TwitterKurds
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/TwitterKurds?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
pic.twitter.com/j2G61DQVYO <https://t.co/j2G61DQVYO>
— @Hevallo (@Hevallo) February 19, 2020
<https://twitter.com/Hevallo/status/1230146403046961152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
Other leading representatives of WUC have vocally endorsed Turkish
military interventionism. The political statements of Seyit Tümturk, who
served as WUC Vice President
<https://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/introducing-the-world-uyghur-congress/fifth-general-assembly-of-the-world-uyghur-congress/>,
underscore the extremist and militant politics behind WUC’s carefully
cultivated image as a “peaceful and nonviolent” human rights organization.
In 2018, Tümturk declared that Chinese Uyghurs view Turkish “state
requests as orders.” He then proclaimed that hundreds of thousands of
Chinese Uyghurs were ready to enlist in the Turkish army and join
Turkey’s illegal and brutal invasion of Northern Syria “to fight for
God” – if ordered to do so by Erdogan.
Hundreds of thousands Uyghurs from #China
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/China?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>'s
Xinjiang region are ready to enlist Turkish army and join #Syria
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Syria?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>'s
Afrin battle to fight for God with an order from Commander #Erdogan
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Erdogan?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>,
says Seyit Tümtürk, head of Association for East Turkishtan Culture
and Solidarity in #Turkey
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Turkey?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>.
pic.twitter.com/ElgslclOLS <https://t.co/ElgslclOLS>
— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) March 11, 2018
<https://twitter.com/abdbozkurt/status/972712081312100352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
Seyit Tümtürk, Uyghur leader in #Turkey
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Turkey?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>,
talks to Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu directly on the
phone when he wanted to lead a rally before #China
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/China?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
embassy in Ankara. He says Uyghurs consider Turkish state requests
as orders and moves rally nearby Kugulu Park after talk
pic.twitter.com/jsZIhEjfrg <https://t.co/jsZIhEjfrg>
— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) December 6, 2018
<https://twitter.com/abdbozkurt/status/1070764427249623040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
Shortly after Tumturk’s comments, Uyghur militants dressed in Turkish
military fatigues and on the Turkish side of the Syrian border released
a video in which they threatened to wage war against China
<https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/uyghur-militant-filmed-with-turkish-backed-rebels-near-afrin/#>:
“Listen you dog bastards, do you see this? We will triumph!” one fighter
exclaimed. “We will kill you all. Listen up Chinese civilians, get out
of our East Turkestan. I am warning you. We shall return and we will be
victorious.”
Uyghur man standing in Turkish army fatigue next to troops threatens
#China
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/China?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>.
The video reportedly shot at the Turkish town of Hassa on the border
with #Syria
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Syria?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> as
#Turkey
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Turkey?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>'s
military offensive for #Afrin
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Afrin?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> was
ongoing. pic.twitter.com/xXvuUHFa14 <https://t.co/xXvuUHFa14>
— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) March 22, 2018
<https://twitter.com/abdbozkurt/status/976689933342707712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
The second installment of this investigation will detail the shadowy
relationship between the WUC’s lobbying apparatus, Western governments
and violent extremist organizations like the East Turkestan Islamic
Party, which are waging a separatist religious war from Western China to
Syria’s Idlib province.
Ajit Singh is a lawyer and journalist. He is a contributing author to
/Keywords in Radical Philosophy and Education: Common Concepts for
Contemporary Movements/ (Brill: 2019). He tweets at @ajitxsingh
<https://twitter.com/ajitxsingh>.
--
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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