East Turkestan is an important Turkish-Islamic homeland with a land area of 1,824,418 square kilometers and a Turkish population of over 35 million. In addition, the Uyghur diaspora, numbering 3 million, lives in various countries of the world, especially in the Turkic republics. These unfortunate people, who have been exposed to various massacres, genocides, assimilation and oppressive policies for 74 years with the Chinese occupation, are now completely isolated from the world, struggling with the threat of being erased from history in a closed box.
The Muslim Turkish people fighting for survival in East Turkestan do not have freedom of thought and expression, freedom of press and publication; has never happened before. All media, broadcasting and communication tools are in the hands of the Chinese communist regime and are used only for the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party and the state.
Despite the fact that the population of East Turkestan people living outside the homeland has reached 3 million, there has never been an independent radio or television channel that can strengthen the bond of brotherhood between them, serve to create a consensus, and more importantly, make their voices heard in the world. So far, Uyghur broadcasts have been broadcast on Radio Free Asia, a US radio, and Jeddah Radio, Saudi Arabia, within the frameworks and opportunities provided by these two countries, and these broadcasts are currently ongoing.
Even peoples in the world with a population of several hundred thousand or even a few tens of thousands have independent radio and television channels. However, the fact that a population of over 35 million people does not have a single radio or television channel to broadcast independently is enough to describe the dire situation they are in.
So we took a step a few years ago to fill this big gap. First of all, news, analysis, religious conversations and other programs have been broadcast live and later on through Istiqlal TV/Radio on the internet for more than 13 years in the field of press, broadcasting and media.
The Chinese regime continues to destroy the religion, culture, morals and other national values of the Muslim Turkish people with the propaganda media it has been using in East Turkestan, which it has occupied for 74 years. After the occupation of East Turkestan in 1949, millions of people were martyred in prisons as political criminals, and millions are still in prisons with long-term or life sentences. The systematic brainwashing, intimidation, Chineseization and assimilation policy implemented by the Chinese regime in East Turkestan for 70 years has entered a new phase since the beginning of 2017. Since the beginning of 2017, the Chinese regime established concentration/punishment camps and started the process of assimilation/extermination of the people of East Turkestan in a short time. Nearly 8 million Muslim Turks were imprisoned in Nazi-type concentration camps. Mass deaths occur in these camps. The Chinese regime, which did not accept that these camps existed at first, and then had to accept the existence of the camps, unable to withstand international pressures, is blatantly trying to present these camps to the world public as "vocational training centers". In the age of information and communication, the best fight we can take against Chinese intrigues will be to tell the civilized world about the genocide suffered by the people of East Turkestan through effective media and broadcast services, and to expose the brazen lies of the Chinese regime to the world. Therefore, it has become essential to tell our troubles to the world by broadcasting at a professional level through an independent TV/Radio.
Despite all the shortcomings, our media activities, which we are currently carrying out on the Internet, in Istiqlal Uyghur, Istiqlal Turkish, Istiqlal Arabic and Istiqlal English, have been appreciated and appreciated by our people in East Turkestan and in the diaspora.