Uyghur commander addressing the locals in a mosque in Latakia, December 10, 2024. Screenshot.
One Uyghur has been appointed general and two colonels in the new Syrian Army. What does it mean?
by Kok Bayraq
Bitter Winter, 01/07/2025
The new Syrian government announced the establishment of a Defense Ministry and the appointment of commanders in the army last week. Among those appointed were a Uyghur general and two colonels.
Let’s start with this question. Are the Uyghurs in Syria refugees or fighters? The answer can be found in part in the words spoken by the Uyghur commander to the locals in a mosque as they entered the strategic port city of Latakia, on December 10, 2024: “We are your immigrant brothers… We are your immigrant brothers from East Turkistan, in fact they [the Chinese government] drove us out of our country, oppressed us, killed us, imprisoned us. Today is the first time we met, but we have actually been here since 2012, the beginning of the revolution… As we said, we left our country, we left our fathers, we left our mothers. Now you are our family, you are our fathers, you are our brothers. We did not come to disturb you… We have received so much goodness from you for more than ten years. You will now see that we will not leave you alone against Assad’s troops.”
This statement revealed that these Uyghurs in Syria were both refugees and fighters.
Five years ago, I received a call from one of the Uyghur fighters in Syria, a friend of my younger brother who went there from my hometown. I stood in the position of an elder brother and asked. “How did you do this crazy thing, bringing your wife and children to a war zone?” He answered, “Here is safer than in our homeland, here you will not be dragged from your bed in the middle of the night in front of your children and taken to prison. Your wife will not be arrested because of a ‘crime’ you committed. Your children will not be taken to a concentration camp because they may become a ‘dangerous generation’ when they turn 18. Your father will not be killed in prison, and his body will not be buried in an unknown place. Only once a week, sometimes once a month, bombs will rain down on you or around you. If you are lucky you will survive, if not you will travel to the other world within a minute, comfortably… But there will be no swallowing anger inside you for decades, no bleeding heart from being bullied for days and nights. More importantly, when your enemy opens fire on you, there will be no standing like a sheep, when he fires ten shots you can at least fire one.”
Of course, this is my somewhat literary rendering of his words and feelings based on what I remember. However, I have heard almost the same expressions from Radio Free Asia’s report about Patigul Ghulam, a mother searching for her missing son. She said in the interview: “Syrian mothers are happier than me; they can have the bodies of their children. They are luckier than me [because] they can cry when their children die; as they cry, thousands of reporters come to them. When we have thousands of our children abducted and destroyed, no journalists come to us…”
Therefore, I could not dispute the words of my brother’s friend and softened my tone a little bit: “So, since you went abroad, why don’t you try go to America or Europe and do something that will allow you to live more peacefully?” He asked, “Brother, do you feel like you’re living in peace in America now?” This question had a strong satirical scent. Because at the beginning of our conversation, he had asked about his friend, my brother Tudaxun Hoshur, and I told him that all my four brothers and sisters were in prison in China with their wives and husbands. “Didn’t the American government help you because you are a US citizen?” he asked. “My country has many problems with China,” I answered, “my case is not on the top right now.” When he realized that my tone had completely changed from before, he directly expressed his opinion: “It is not unreasonable to take refuge in a war zone after fleeing from a country that was going through genocide.” My intellectual capacity failed to reject his argument.
The argument was also an answer to the question, “What was the motivation of these refugees to flee to a war zone?” The answer was that they consider the situation in East Turkistan (Xinjiang to China), the land from which the Uyghurs fled, as more serious and dangerous than the one in the war zone in Syria.
Back to the three Uyghur commanders appointed to the Syrian army, they are Abdulaziz Davud Hudaberdi, who was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General; and Mawlan Tarsun Abdüssamed and Abdulselam Yasin Ahmed who were promoted to the rank of Colonels. These are the surviving commanders of the Uyghur fighters, most of whom were initially refugees.
Naturally, this position was given to them not because they were good refugees, but because they were brave fighters and experienced commanders. This position was not given to them as a favor, but as a reward for their contribution to the liberation of Syria, as a source of experience that could be used.
According to the newsletter of the Uyghur community in Syria, Abdulaziz Davud Hudaberdi led fighters in more than twenty major battles during the revolution, including the capture of the Assad army base in Aleppo, Abu Zuber Airport, the city of Edlib and Ras al Ayn . Uyghur fighters also played a key role in the battles in Hama, Humus and Lathika, paving the way for the capture of Damascus. This situation is also partially expressed in the words of the commander in the video: “Today, some of us are here in Latakia, some of us went to Damascus, some of us went to the west.”
Previous reports have described the Uyghur fighters as being extraordinarily brave compared to other fighters in the region. As factors explaining their bravery their “strong faith” and “no retreat possibility” were mentioned. The most important factor, in my opinion, was that they had escaped genocide and wanted to denounce it. Because this world loses its appeal the moment you lose all your possessions, including your brothers.
To date, thousands of facts have emerged about the Uyghur Genocide, including secret orders from China, but there are still those who do not believe that this genocide is continuing. The presence of Uyghurs in Syria, seeking refuge in an area that residents were trying to flee for their lives, was another confirmation of the genocide.
There are several lessons that China can learn from the presence and voices of the Uyghurs in Syria. Genocide does not always destroy and sometimes produces generals and colonels. Genocide can be hidden for a while with friendly visits, but one day it will be revealed. The victims of genocide can of course be introduced as “the happiest Muslims in the world”; but as in Damascus, these people will one day come out and reveal their real feelings. While continuing the genocide, China can secure the support of dictator leaders, self-interested capitalists, and unethical diplomats and journalists. Even with this support, it will not be able to emerge as a bona fide and respected superpower in the world; on the contrary, it will be digging its own grave.
