1. Salih Hudayar is a Uyghur-American politician known for advocating for East Turkistan independence.
18 Facts About Salih Hudayar
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On 11 November 2019, Hudayar was elected as the Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile.
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Salih Hudayar was born to a Uyghur business family in Artush in 1993.
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At the age of 7, Salih Hudayar came to the United States with his family as political refugees.
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Salih Hudayar 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 a medical discharge due to a kidney condition.
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Salih Hudayar studied International Studies and Political Science at the University of Oklahoma, graduating in January 2017.
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Salih Hudayar is widely known as the Founder and President of the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement.
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In early 2018, Salih Hudayar began to meet with members of Congress and advocate for the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act and since 4 June 2018, he has led weekly demonstrations in front of the US Capitol building and the White House to protest China's policy in Xinjiang.
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On 9 April 2019, Salih Hudayar delivered a speech calling on the "free world" to support the East Turkistan movement at the newly launched Committee on the Present Danger China Roundtable.
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In October 2019, the Agence France-Presse interviewed Salih Hudayar regarding China's destruction of Uyghur graves and cultural sites.
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Salih 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.
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Salih Hudayar spent numerous years extensively advocating for official recognition of the Uyghur genocide by the EU, United Nations, and countries around the world and even referred to it as a "21st century Holocaust".
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On 11 November 2019, Salih 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.
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Later that afternoon, Salih 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.
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In March 2020, Salih Hudayar led an East Turkistan delegation and held meetings with numerous Senators and Representatives.
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Salih 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.
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Salih Hudayar told Radio Free Asia that the East Turkistan Government in Exile welcomed the sanctions and that Uyghurs wanted real justice.
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Salih Hudayar stated that the Chinese officials should be put on trial like the Nazis during the Nuremberg Trials.