WUC, 5 February 2015

The East Turkestan Union in Europe (ETUE) held its newest round of elections on February 1^st, 2015, in Munich, Germany. Thirteen people, between the ages of 18 and 30 years, were elected to serve as representatives for Uyghurs living in and outside of China and to campaign for freedom, democracy and human rights.

The new group is set to replace the older generation of those that have worked for the organization for a number of years. Some of the principle goals of the group have been to lobby members of the German government, Members of European Parliament (MEP) and other like-minded organizations to recognize the cause and to take genuine action. The new group will look to devise a new strategy to attract attention and support while heeding the advice of their predecessors in relation to the past two decades of work.

The ETUE was founded in 1991 by then President of the World Uyghur Congress, Erkin Alptekin, as a means to promote the Uyghur cause in Germany and internationally. The group has been made up of the Uyghur diaspora from Germany since then, working in close association with the WUC.