The Complicity of Heritage: Cultural Heritage and Genocide in the Uyghur Region

Since 2014, Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan, also referred to the Uyghur region and Uyghur homeland,1 have suffered heavy securitization, mass incarcerations, and attacks on local languages and other aspects of cultural identity.2 According to estimates, over a million people have been arbitrarily detained in a systemȱ ofȱ ȃpoliticalȱ educationȄȱ campsǰȱ pretrial detention centers and prisons.3 Numerous witnesses have reported that detainees in the camp system are subjected to systematic torture and rape, cultural and political indoctrination, and forced labor. Outside the detention facilities Uyghurs and other Turkish peoples are subject to a pervasive system of mass surveillance, controls on movement, forced sterilization, and family separation