| Isa Yusuf Alptekin | |
|---|---|
| General Secretary of the National Assembly, First East Turkestan Republic | |
| In office 12 November 1933 – 6 February 1934 |
|
| Preceded by | Office instituted |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1901 Kashgar, Qing Dynasty |
| Died | 1995 Istanbul, Turkey |
| Profession | Politician |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
Isa Yusuf Alptekin or ʿĪsa Yūsuf Alptekin (Uyghur: عيسى يوسف آلبتكين Айсабек (known in China as Ai Sha, Chinese: 艾沙伯克; pinyin: àishābókè) Chinese: 艾萨·玉素甫·阿布甫泰肯; pinyin: Àishā Yóushūfū Ābùtàijīn;[1] 1901 – 17 December 1995) was a Uyghur political leader, exiled from China in 1949.
He was born at 1901 in Yengisar County, Kashgar, Qing Dynasty. He headed the First East Turkestan Republic in Kashgar from November 12, 1933 to February 6, 1934 as the General Secretary of the National Assembly of the Republic, alongside Prime Minister Sabit Damulla, and titular President Hoja-Niyaz. He also represented Eastern Turkestan in Nanjing from 1932 to 1934. Initially the Republic was named the "Turkish Islamic Republic of East Turkestan" (TIRET), representing the multi-national staff of its Government, which included Uyghurs as well as Kazakhs and Kyrgyz; its anti-Hui, anti-Han, and anti-communist policies, declared in its Declaration of Independence; and basic Islamic principles, declared in its Constitution. Later, however, some leaders attempted to rename it as the "Republic of Uyghurstan", which resulted in the issuing of national currency in the form of minted copper (pul), silver (tanga), and gold (tilla) coins under the name Uyghurstan Jumhuriyeti.
He stayed in Nanjing, and then fled to Chongqing with the Chinese government when Japan invaded. He lived there along with several other Uyghurs like Masud Sabri. Some Uyghurs attended the Chinese military academy.
In 1939 Isa Yusuf Alptekin and Ma Fuliang were sent by Chiang Kai-shek to the Middle eastern countries such as Egypt, Turkey, and Syrian to gain support for the Chinese War against Japan, they also visited Afghanistan in 1940 and contacted Muhammad Amin Bughra, they asked him to come to Chongqing, the capital of the Kuomintang regime. Bughra was arrested by the British in 1942 for spying, and the Kuomintang arranged for Bughra's release. He and Isa Yusuf worked as editors of Kuomintang Muslim publications.[2]
Isa returned to Xinjiang, and he opposed the Second East Turkestan Republic in northern Xinjiang since it was a Soviet puppet state, instead, he worked for the Chinese Kuomintang regime of Zhang Zhizhong. He asked Ma Bufang on whether Chiang Kaishek and the Chinese government would allow an independent Islamic state in southern Xinjiang to counter the Communists and the Soviet backed East Turketsan Republic, but Ma Bufang did not bother with this request, instead, Ma fled on an American CIA plane as the Communist army approached Qinghai with several million dollars in gold. Ma then fled to Taiwan, then to Egypt.
Isa Yusuf Alptekin was the father of Erkin Alptekin. During Alptekin's exile in Turkey, where he received great support from Pan-Turkic elements in the Government of Turkey, the PRC government denounced him for continuing his "Xinjiang independence activities", and for trying to overthrow the "socialist system". When he died there, over a million people allegedly attended his funeral, and he was buried next to the graves of two former Turkish presidents. In 1995, a park was dedicated to Alptekin in the Blue Mosque section in Istanbul, along with a memorial for martyrs of the late East Turkestan Independence Movement. The high-profile nature of the dedication, including the attendance of the Turkish President, Prime Minister, chairman of parliament and others, enraged China. It denounced Turkey for meddling in its 'internal affairs', and the Turkish state department requested the closing of the park, but domestic constituencies refused.[1]