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On May 27, 2004, more than
fifty people from various NGOs, government agencies and
universities attended a conference organized by the
Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA). The
conference, which was titled “East Turkestan – Its Past,
Present and Future” and was held at the ATAA office, was
lectured by Erkin Alptekin, chairman of the Eastern
Turkestan National Congress. The conference started at
6:30 pm by ATAA President Ercument Kilic’s opening
speech. Mr. Kilic said that ATAA aims to create
awareness in the American public concerning the
systematic suppression and persecution of the Uyghurs
under the communist regime of China. In his speech, Mr.
Alptekin gave a short history of
East Turkestan and the problems Uyghurs have been
encountering under the continual repressions by the
Chinese government. Alptekin said, “When politically
challenging China's poor human rights, based on the
situation, Uyghurs are held captive under state
supervision, tortured, and executed under pretexts as
‘American agents,’ Soviet Hegemonists,’ ‘Pan-Turkists,’
‘Pan-Islamists,’ ‘Religous Fundamentalists,’
‘Separatists,’ and now ‘Terrorists’.” A
question-and-answer session, during which Mr. Alptekin
responded the questions of the participants and media,
followed the conference.
Among the conference attendees were Ayfer Ergun from
Amnesty International, Omer Karat from the Uyghur
American Association, David Cloud from the Wall Street
Journal, Nury Turkel from the Uyghur American
Association, Orhan Ketene from the Iraqi Turkmen Front
and Omer Alp Aksu from Istanbul University. From the
Turkish press, Salih Zeki from the Dogan News Agency,
Hasan Mesut Hazar from Turkiye Daily and Tugrul
Keskingoren from Aydinlik Magazine covered the
conference.
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