Erkin Alptekin (; ; born 4 July 1939) is a Uyghur activist from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. Alptekin is the son of Isa Alptekin, who claimed that during 1933–1934, he was the General Secretary of the

First East Turkestan Republic The Turkic Islamic Republic of East Turkestan (TIRET; ug, شەرقىي تۈركىستان تۈرك ئىسلام جۇمھۇرىيىتى, , Шәрқий Түркистан Түрк-Ислам Җумхурийити; ) was a short-lived breakaway ...

Western China Western China (, or rarely ) is the west of China. In the definition of the Chinese government, Western China covers one municipality ( Chongqing), six provinces (Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Qinghai), and three autonomou ...

when in reality he was a representative from

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwes ...

in the KMT government. He has played very important roles for the foundation of some international organizations, the best known of which are the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) and the

World Uyghur Congress The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is an international organization of exiled Uyghur groups that claims to "represent the collective interest of the Uyghur people" both inside and outside of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's ...

Biography

After the Peaceful Liberation of Xinjiang in 1949 and succession by the new

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, Alptekin's family fled to

Srinagar Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its ...

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

. There he attended

Catholic school Catholic schools are pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered under the aegis or in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest religious, non-governmental school syste ...

and then Convent College, completing his studies in the Institute of Journalism in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

. Alptekin is based in Germany.

Career

In 1971, due to his father's connections, he got a job at

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

. He worked as a "Senior Policy Advisor" and directed the Uyghur Division until 1979, when Uyghur-language broadcasts were discontinued for a lack of an audience under RFE/RL jurisdiction. During his time at the Division, he complained about lack of media coverage of the Uyghurs, lamenting "the international community only reacts when conflict breaks out." Concurrently in the 1970s and 1980s, the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

looked to connect to Uyghur separatists and found Alptekin a suitable match because of his leadership in various Uyghur organizations and his tenure at RFE. He became an adviser to the CIA and retired his RFE/RL post in 1995 as it moved to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. Erkin Alptekin has founded various organizations for separatist movements, mostly related to the Uyghur nationalist cause. In 1985 he participated in the founding of the "Allied Committee of the Peoples of East Turkestan, Tibet and Inner Mongolia", which held its first conference in 1998 in New York. He founded the East Turkestan Union in Europe in Europe. In 1991, he also became one of the founders of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), which has its headquarters in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

. During a conference held in Munich in April 2004 Alptekin was elected the President of the

. Erkin Alptekin has been lobbying, not only for Uyghur nationalism but also for other separatist movements, peoples and minorities, including the indigenous peoples in Western countries since 1971. Erkin Alptekin is also on the advisory board of several international organizations situated in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, Europe and in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. For the last 35 years Alptekin has attended more than 6,000 international conferences worldwide on various topics; published numerous articles, research papers and brochures; and has been the focus of several Western press media.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alptekin, Erkin 1939 births Living people Uyghur human rights activists Chinese anti-communists