Sarajevo Times, December 15, 2024
The Uyghur militant group that contributed to toppling Bashar al-Assad’s regime has vowed to bring the fight to China. The Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) issued threats to Beijing in a video released on December 8th, the day marking the regime’s collapse in Syria. The footage shows fighters armed with machine guns, clad in military uniforms.
“We are here in Syria now, fighting for Allah in all these cities, and we will continue doing so in our Urumqi, Aksu, and Kashgar in the future,” said a masked man, listing cities in China’s Xinjiang region, where the Uyghurs originate. “We will expel the Chinese infidels,” he added.
Referring to their homeland by the Uyghurs’ preferred name, he continued: “We fought in Homs, in Idlib, and we will continue the fight in East Turkestan. Allah has granted us victory here. May He grant us victory in our land as well.”
TIP’s decade-long presence in Syria
TIP has operated in Syria for over a decade. Its members fled to the Middle East to escape Chinese repression against the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority. The group aligned itself with Hay‘at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), leading the rebel offensive from northwestern Syria.
TIP recently launched a promotional campaign featuring its leader Abu Mohammad alongside battalions. One video showcases TIP fighters battling Assad’s forces in late November 2024, shortly after the rebel offensive began. Another video shows TIP fighters entering Damascus with tanks, waving light blue flags adorned with a crescent and sta – the group’s symbols.
According to the video, TIP fighters captured the strategic port cities of Latakia and Tartus on December 10th and 11th, previously Russian strongholds along Syria’s coast.
“Many groups have united against us. Russia, Iran, Hezbollah – armed with powerful weaponry and various fighters – came together against us,” said a fighter in the December 8th video. “But every time, with Allah as our witness, we did not retreat. With Allah’s help, we fought and arrived here. We never showed weakness or fear.”
TIP played a role in the rebel victory, said Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, an independent researcher specializing in the Syrian civil war.
“They were not necessarily a larger force than other Syrian rebel groups assisting HTS, but they were part of the offensive,” al-Tamimi noted.
Focus on Uyghur independence
Founded in the 1990s, with prior activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan, TIP has consistently emphasized its primary goal: the independence of Uyghurs. The group seeks to “liberate the Muslims of East Turkestan from Chinese occupation.” On December 6th, as the rebel offensive advanced, TIP’s Emir Abdul Haq al-Turkistani issued a statement underscoring plans to strike China in the future.
“Chinese infidels will feel our power”
“While Muslims celebrate victories worldwide, the Muslims of oppressed East Turkestan remain far from the news of those victories, living under a filthy, oppressive infidel occupation that suppresses them in every possible way. With God’s help, the Chinese infidels will soon taste the same suffering as the infidels in Sham, God willing,” Turkistani declared.
TIP’s media outlets have circulated images depicting blood splattering across Chinese President Xi Jinping’s face.
Despite the threats, TIP’s actual organization and capability to launch attacks against China remain unclear. Beijing has long emphasized – and possibly exaggerated – TIP’s strength to justify its repression of Uyghurs, while some experts on Uyghurs argue that TIP’s cohesion is nearly non-existent.
Given China’s overseas investments, its workers and infrastructure could become potential targets.
TIP’s presence in Syria could complicate relations between the new Syrian government and China, according to al-Tamimi. However, handing TIP fighters over to China would significantly diverge from HTS principles. HTS leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani stresses the protection of foreign fighters,
provided they do not use Syria as a base for international terror attacks.
In a December 10th video, a masked fighter addressed an audience in what the group claimed was a mosque in Latakia:
“The Chinese government expelled us from our country, oppressed us, killed us, and imprisoned us. We left our land and came here…We have seen only goodness from you over the past 10 years. We are the Mujahideen of East Turkestan.”, Klix.ba writes.
