Anwar Yusuf Turani was born in 1962 in a labor camp in Artush, near East Turkistan’s border with Afghanistan. His parents were condemned as Turkic nationalist, separatists, counter-revolutionaries, and bourgeois capitalists by Communist China.
All of his family members including his brothers and sisters stayed in the camp under "the dictatorship of the proletariat" until 1978, when they were released, and suffered from the atrocities committed by the Communist Chinese regime.
When he was a child his parents were forced to dress him in Chinese cloths and to carry Chairman Mao's Red Book with him and wear Mao's stickers and bottoms. When he was in high school Mr. Turani was accused of not wearing a Mao bottoms and the Red Guards beat him, breaking his nose and his collarbone.
In the camp his family was constantly tortured, forced to do the harsh physical labor, publicly criticized and insulted by the regime under the leadership of Chairman Mao. Mr. Turani finished his elementary and secondary education in the camp.
In 1978, Dengxio-ping, the successor of Chairman Mao, introduced both political and economic reform throughout China. Seizing this golden opportunity, he studied physics (1978-1983) at the Kashgar Teacher’s College in Kashgar, not far from home.
Upon his graduation, Mr. Turani’s relatives, who had escaped before the communist takeover, invited his parents and him to visit them in Saudi Arabia.
Seizing the opportunity, Mr. Turani spent several years in the Middle East, primarily in Turkey, seeking a way for the independence of his homeland, East Turkistan.
However, 1987, barely one year after his return to East Turkistan, his political views and activities forced him to choose between arrest and exile, and he chose to leave his homeland for abroad.
First, Mr. Turani went to Turkey as a tourist, and stayed there a year until he came to the United States as an ESL student in 1988. From 1988 to 1995, he studied English, International Relations and International Law at San Francisco State University and Indiana University at Bloomington.
Mr. Yusuf is a talented educator. He is a physics teaches.
Mr. Turani conducted extensive research on the politics and history of his homeland. He has written and published several books and papers about East Turkistan, such as "Free East Turkistan: the History, Geography, Political Situation, and the Future of East Turkistan", "Jadidism in East Turkistan: The Muslim-Turk Challenge to Chinese Authority in East Turkistan: 1850 -- 1950", and "China's Destruction of the Environment of the Indigenous People of East Turkistan and Proposals to Resolve the Noble Cause."
From 1995 to present, Mr. Turani established and directed a professional organization, East Turkistan National Freedom Center to educate the American public on the history, culture, and current political situation of the Uyghur people in East Turkistan.
Mr. Turani wrote newsletters, press releases, and letters that generated news coverage and national and international publicity on the plight of the Uyghur people in East Turkistan.
In addition, he briefed State Department officials, members of the Congress, national and international dignitaries, and various organizations and media outlets, providing them with accurate and timely information about China’s human rights violations including the Chinese occupation of his homeland, and the Chinese repression in East Turkistan.
As a talented master musician and singer, Mr. Turani has educated the American public about the culture of his nation by giving many performances in the U.S.
Belove: Mr. Turani is giving a press conference about East Turkistan Government in Exile at National Press Club in Washington, D.C., November 22, 2004.
Yusuf Hasan Haji, Mr. Turani's father.
Sharwanikhan Qurban Haji,
Mr. Turani's mother.
The Labor Camp in Artush
Graduation Day. Kashgar Teacher's Collge, July 5, 1983.
From right: Mr. Turani is sixth from back row.
Left: Mr. Turani is in Mekkah, Saudi Arabia, September, 1983.
Right: Mr. Turani is with his uncle, Mohammad Qurban, Istanbul, Turkey. August, 1983. Mr. Qurban left East Turkistan for Mekkah with his mother Tajikhan, 1948.
EASTTURKISTANGOVERNMENTINEXILE.us EASTTURKISTAN-GOV.org The Official Web Sites of the Governmenti in Exile of East Turkistan Republic
Mail: P. O. Box 3472 Oakton, VA 22124, U.S.A. E-mail: info@eastturkistangovernmentinexile.us hokumet@eastturkistangovernmentinexile.us Phone: 571-344-3886
Right: Mr. Turani meets with His Holiness Dalai Lama, in Bloomington, Indiana, April, 1996. Mr. Turani is 1st from left, and His Holliness is the 1st from right.
Mr. Turani is in Taipe, Taiwan to meet with Chen Shui-bian, the mayor of Taipe City, February, 1998. Later, Chen shui-bian became the President of Taiwan. Mr. Turani is 4th from right.
Mr. Turani is in front of UN, cutting the Chinese flag, New York, 1997.
Mr. Turani is responding to the questions of media in front of the Chenese Consulate in Los Angeles, 1997.
Mr. Turani is responding the questions of media at Laffayat Park, Washington, D.C., November 22, 2004.
