Ehmetjan Qasimi
Ehmetjan Qasim (15 April 1914-27 August 1949) (Traditional Chinese:阿合買提江·哈斯木, Simplified Chinese:阿合买提江·哈斯木, Uyghur:ئەخمەتجان قاسىم) (also transliterated as Ehmetjan Qasimi, Ahmetjan Khasim or Ahmetcan Kasim) was a Uyghur political leader of the Second East Turkestan Republic, which existed from 12 November 1944 to 20 October 1949 ( It collapsed just 19 days after People's Republic of China was proclaimed in Beijing on 1 October 1949).
Ehmetjan was born in Ghulja in 1914. He studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East, Moscow in 1936.
Death
On 24 August 1949 Ehmetjan, Abdulkerim Abbas, Ishaq Beg Munonov, Dalelkhan Sugirbayev, Rakhimjan Sabirhajiev, Luo Zhi and other top representatives ( total 11 men ) of East Turkestan Republic boarded a plane in Almaty, the capital of the Kazakh SSR, headed for Beijing, being invited by Mao Zedong to participate in Beijing All-China Conference, which had to proclaim the establishment of People's Republic of China. Instead the plane landed in Moscow. On 3 September, the Soviet Union informed the Chinese government that the plane had crashed near lake Baikal on route to Beijing, killing all on board. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, former KGB leaders revealed that five top ETR leaders were killed on Stalin's orders in Moscow in late August 1949, in accordance with a deal between Stalin and China's communist leader Mao Zedong[1], however this allegation has never been confirmed. Stripped of their more experienced leaders, the remaining important figures in the ETR agreed to incorporate the three districts into the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and accept important positions within the administration.
Not long before his death Ehmetjan Qasimi declared: " Sinkiang certainly should become Uyghurstan - it's a desire not only of uyghurs, but all the inhabitants and nationalities that live in Eastern Turkestan".
References
- ↑ The quest for an eighth Turkic nation Taipei Times
Additional reading
- Zordun Sabir, Anayurt, Almaty: Nash Mir (2006)
- Abdurakhman Abay, Ahmetjan Qasimi Haqqida Hikayilar, Urumqi: Xinjiang Peoples Publishing (1984)