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July 4, 1939

Erkin Alptekin (July 4, 1939 - ) was born in Lanzhou, Gansu province. He is the son of Isa Yusuf Alptekin. Mr. Alptekin was 10-years-old when his family fled from China to India in 1949, after the Chinese Communists won the civil war. His four-year old  sister died while crossing the great Karakoram mountain range that separates China from India.

During his exile in India Erkin remembers going to school in Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, at an Irish Catholic convent, where he  acquired an appreciation for the freedom of religion historically practiced among Uighurs. Eventually, the Alptekin's family found refuge in Turkey, settling in Istanbul in 1955.

He moved to Germany in 1970 to work for Radio Liberty. He worked as the director of Uighur programming for Radio Liberty in  Munich, Germany. Funded by the US Congress, Radio Liberty was the counterpart of Radio Free Europe, beaming news and  democratic "propaganda" into Communist China and Soviet Central Asia. In 1979, following the opening of diplomatic relations  between China and the USA, the Uighur division of Radio Liberty was disbanded. The official reason given was lack of funding, but it was general knowledge that the closure of this section of Radio Liberty was a precondition for improved Sino-American relations.

Following his departure from Radio Liberty, Erkin Alptekin devoted himself to championing the cause of the Uighurs of East Turkistan.  He founded the Eastern Turkistani Union of Europe to rally the small but influential Uighur community that settled in Germany.

He was a founder and secretary-general of the Hague-based Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, which has been  referred to as a shadow United Nations for stateless populations. The organization provides mutual support for groups who live under  occupation, who are dispossessed of their territories, or who exist as second-class citizens in the land of their ancestors. He returned  to China twice in the 1980s.

In April 2004, he was elected as President of World Uighur Congress, based in Germany.

"Erkin Alptekin is widely touted as the next possible or only hope for a Uighur Dalai Lama. And he's certainly probably the best  candidate out there for such a position," said University of Hawaii professor Dru Gladney.