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Turkistan Islamic Party 

The Turkistan Islamic Party is an Islamic terrorist organization started by Uyghur militants, a Turkic ethnic group living in Central Asia, in western China. Since as early as 1999, the organization has been officially known as the Turkistan Islamic Party; however, it is also frequently referred to by its old name and acronym ETIM. The Turkistan Islamic Party’s main goals are to gain independence of East Turkestan from China and to establish an Islamic State and caliphate to rule across Central Asia. The organization’s released media focuses on the differences between the Chinese, causing violent conflicts locally.

 

The Turkistan Islamic Party particularly criticizes Chinese secular government and feminist policy. According to a NEFA Foundation translation, most of the Turkistan Islamic Party’s videos released to the public stress the importance of segregation between Muslims and the Chinese people. Before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the Turkistan Islamic Party urged Muslims to stay away from transportation and facilities used by the Chinese people.

 

Key figures of the Turkistan Islamic Party include Memetiming Memeti, Emeti Yakuf, Memet Imin, and Tuersun Toheti, all responsible in some part of organizing unsuccessful terror attacks during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Turkistan Islamic Party members Abudumijiti and Wumaierjiang were responsible in leading attacks inside a Chinese supermarket.

 

The organization is allies with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Pakistani Taliban, al-Qaeda, and the Islamic Jihad Union.   

The Chinese government has considered the Turkistan Islamic Party a terrorist organization since the early 2000s and since the September 11 attacks, the group has been declared a terrorist organization by Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, the UAE, China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the US. In Syria, the organization runs training camps for children fighters. The organization frequently releases photography and videography material of Uyghur children fighters training or posing with weapons. In fact, the Turkistan Islamic Party is in competition with ISIL to recruit Uyghur fighters. 

More Info
 
 

Annotated Biblography 

 

Castets, Rémi. "The Uyghurs in Xinjiang–The Malaise Grows.

 

After September 11th 2001, the Chinese regime strove to include its repression of Uyghur opposition within the international dynamic of the struggle against Islamic terrorist networks." China Perspectives 49 (2003).

 

Chung, Chien-peng. "China’s ‘War on Terror’: September 11 and Uighur Separatism." Foreign affairs 81.4 (2002): 8-12.

 

This resource outlines the parallels between the United States’ initiative against the war on terror after the September 11 attacks and China’s comparable movement against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang. This article argues China is utilizing dangerous methods against the war on terror – and to actually solve the problems happening in Uyghur, the Chinese government would be more successful by taking the Uyghur people’s concerns seriously.

 

Davis, Elizabeth Van Wie. "Uyghur Muslim Ethnic Separatism in Xinjiang, China." Asian Affairs: An American Review 35.1 (2008): 15-30.

 

Davis’s research focuses on how Uyghur segregation within Chinese society affects Uyghur violence in China, citing vast ethnic and religious differences rather than a single motive. Davis suggests Uyghurs that utilize violence – stemming from or trained by the Turkistan Islamic Party - are specifically motivated by independence from China.

 

"Why Is There Tension between China and the Uighurs? - BBC News." BBC News. Bbc, 26 Sept. 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

 

This article by the BBC attempts to understand western China’s long history of violence between Uyghur people and Chinese authorities. To do so, the article focuses on the Xinjiang region – bordered by eight countries, the majority of the population is Uyghur, Muslim and speak Turkish. In 2007, Chinese police raided a suspected Turkistan Islamic Party training camp in Xinjiang. Recent development has brought an influx of Han Chinese people, possibly an answer to the uprising of conflict in this area.  

 

Wang, John Z. "Eastern Turkistan Islamic movement: a case study of a new terrorist organization in China." International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 47.5 (2003): 568-584.

 

Wang offers a study on the Turkistan Islamic Party’s movement in China. The organization had been declared a terrorist group by several countries; however, no in depth studies of the organization’s growing branches in China had been conducted. Wang’s research provides a case study and a history of its organizational methods, agenda and its current role in the international terrorist network.

 

Wright, Robin. "Islam, democracy and the West." FOREIGN AFFAIRS-NEW YORK- 71 (1992): 131-131.

 

Xu, Beina, Holly Fletcher, and Jayshree Bajoria. "The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM)." Council of Foreign Relations Briefing (2013).

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