A testimony from our “100 Camp Testimonies” Book
I am originally from Ulastay farm, Hejing County, Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture (巴音郭楞蒙古自治州和静县乌拉斯台农场), East Turkistan. I came to Turkey in August 2015, and as of 2021 I am studying at the Istanbul Business School. I would like to testify for my father, mother and my brother.
Memet Niyaz, my father, was born on April 12, 1956, who retired from a local construction company. Prior to his internment, he had high blood pressure and a ruptured intestine, for which he did not get a chance to seek proper treatment.
Dileysem Kerem, my mother, was born on May 1, 1961, who also retired from the same construction company as my father. She had cholecystitis (i.e. inflammation of the gallbladder) before her internment.
I heard through an intermediary source that both my parents were sent to internment camps in December 2018. They have always been law-abiding citizens who have never gotten into troubles with the police. I believe that they were interned because I live in Turkey and refused to return to my hometown. The local police by the name of Shahi Merdan pressured me via phone calls in 2016, blackmailing me to return to my hometown, but I kept telling him that I would do that each time he contacted me. Subsequently, he forced my elder brother to call me and ask me to return to my hometown. I have video and audio recordings of those phone calls, which I previously provided for the Bitter Winter Magazine for its reportage on the persecution of my family. After having failed to make me return to my hometown, the local Chinese authority interned my parents as a punishment.
The police Shahi Merdan threatened me and held my family hostage, and the following is the transcription of his audio messages: “Come home little brother. You’ve got so many relatives here, and so has your wife. If you continue to stay there (in Turkey), you will get them all into a lot of trouble. That’s not good, is it? As soon as you can, come back with your wife and kid, and come over to see me. We’ll have a few formalities sorted, and then you are free to leave. You will bring a lot of trouble to your family here if you don’t comply.”
I have three elder brothers, and I learned through reliable intermediary sources that my second eldest brother was detained on March 4, 2017, but I do not know the situations of my eldest and third eldest brothers: Emetjan Memet and Iskender Memet, respectively.
Ehet Memet, my second eldest brother and a father of five, was born on June 14, 1980, who graduated from the state-approved Institute for Islamic Studies in Ürümchi back in 2005, i.e., a five-year education between 2000 and 2005. After his graduation, he was assigned by the regime to be the imam of the Beytulla mosque in Ushaktal township, Hoshut County, Korla Prefecture. After he was detained on March 4, 2017, he was initially sentenced to 15 years in prison, but later the sentence was increased to 20 years. His wife and children are staying with his mother-in-law in Ürümchi.
One year prior to his imprisonment, my brother Ehet was selected by the Chinese authorities to lead a delegation and supervise their pilgrimage to Mecca. The reason given for his arrest was that he had allegedly donated money to a “terrorist” group that supported separatism, i.e., wanted to decolonize East Turkistan. My brother did not commit any crime, and he was even issued a patriotic imam certificate by the Chinese regime. Despite the fact that he was doing everything by the book, he could not escape the regime’s persecution: the lengthy 20-year prison sentence.