Thread by @Alfred_Uyghur, 3 years ago today,I had that “On that day, people received a [...]

3 years ago today,I had that “On that day, people received a grim reminder ...” moment. For many,it was also when everything started..

On June 4th,2017, I received a message from my cousin on Whatsapp,saying police are rounding up Uyghur students from their dormitories and .....

..from streets &Uyghur restaurants. He told me he only managed to take his Passport and run.
It was a few months after I lost contact with my parents,but they were still free & I was still trying to maintain my F1 student status so I could graduate,then go back to my homeland...

Like me, My cousin was an international student with valid passport & visa.

Yet our difference,while I was studying in US,he was a student in Al Azhar University in egypt,one of top 3 most affordable &easy to get visa study options (Turkey, Malaysia, Egypt)for Uyghur at z time..

While such incidents, arbitrary detainment wasn’t something new for Uyghurs in our own homeland -“Xinjiang” /Uyghur Autonomous Region/ET ,but such large scale arbitrary detainment -detain literally everyone who has Uyghur on their id, was the first case in abroad.
I panicked..

And I didn’t know how to help. He was on a Uber, with his passport and few other things he managed to get , trying to escape to a different city.
I annomously wrote to different media outlets,country embassies asking for help .
That night Faceboom filled with info of students..

Being detained in different places. Some managed to buy plane ticket to a third country, yet were l detained at the airpot when they were boarding.
It was as if its saying, As long as you are Uyghur there is nowhere you can escape, even if you are in abroad.
I advised him...

I Adviced him to somehow get inside embassy of a democratic country& wait. But he insisted on buying a plane ticket immediately &fly to 3rd country as soon as possible.
It was like a gambling,by the time he arrived another city,some were detained in airport while some didn’t.

I couldn’t sleep the whole noght as It reminded me how powerless I am and how our lives are so worthless,not just for Chinese colonialists but even in front of “rest of the world”; if this happened to anyone else, it would have gotten different attention from the world.
I sent..

I sent him messages saying everything will be ok, don’t worry but I couldn’t convince myself to believe the same. There is hige chance that I might become the last person who ever spoke to him.
Yet, human is such a selfish creature. While I was saying everything will be alright..

..I was also worried about myself,because if he get caught in the airport,they will also see our message history as I was the one last contacted him.
As I had no idea about my fate &detainment of my parents 6 months later, at the time I still wanted to go back after I graduate...

As he was about to go in the airport for boarding,I was afraidI will become the last person who ever spoke to him. At the same time,I wanted to ask him to delete message history on whatsapp as it will turn my “huge chance to detained” to “will get detained” if I go back.
Yet..

Yet I didn’t ask, as I couldn’t bring myself to ask & admit that I am worrying about my own safety while he was facing literal life or death moment.
Before he walked into airport,We had that talk that I used to see on TV,as he told me his “last words/wish” for just in case...

After that ,Time passed really slowly, Facebook were filled with info of students being detained in different airports and etc.
later,I got a message saying he successfully boarded the plane. It was a relief but there is still chance something will happen before plane took off. .

Then later plane took off, He did successfully landed in another country and his safety finally got guaranteed at least temporarily.
He was a student like me ,he was there with approval from Chinese government.
A night passed and I finally had a chance to sleep yet....

Yet many student detained 3 years ago today, and still no info. You can still see images and videos when they first detained.
Some did able to escape some were sent back to China and no info since then. Giving one example,Muhtar Rozi...

For example Muhter Rozi was detained at that time. He created many free Tutorials on web development,HTML,Flash , Photoshop and etc. he disappeared 3 years ago, and still no info about him. You can still see his Youtube page with those tutorials.
Back to the story of my cousin...

At that time,I felt really sorry for my cousin. just like me, he was a student yet all his previous school years got wasted& become a refugee because we are in different countries.

Yet, I had no idea China’s colonialism would also led me to drop out from college a year later...

Speaking anout my cousin, after he arrived he first started learning the language in that country later applied to a college. his parents were sent to concentration camps, and when he was about to speak out for his parent’s detainment....

...a Police contacted him on phone and he was threatened to shut up about his parents detainment or else his sibling in University in China will be detained.They even asked him to be their spy,he didn’t speak out for his parents when Uyghurs did but he refused to be their spy...

Though not as known as July 5th, I think what happened 3 years ago today also need to be remembered.

Though,I was trying to maintain my student visa then go back at z time,but incident reminded me the cruel colonial reality I avoided,only to be forced to face myself a year later

At the end, If you have read through all these, please Tweet my father’s photo and id with #WhereIsErkin , ask Chinese embassy in your country to tell me where is my father Erkin Tursun,(national id:654101196804220556) a well known TV prodcuer and journalist missing since 2018.

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