SUMMARY

The origins of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) can be traced back to 1940, but its name, tactics and ideology has changed over time. Furthermore, it has been inactive during long periods and restarted on several occasions. The group subscribed to a violent type of fundamentalist Islam and called for an independent East Turkistan. Information about the group is scarce and the size and strength is unclear. In 2002, US placed the group on two terrorism blacklists (finance and immigration) and the leader of the group; Abdul Haq al-Turkistani was blacklisted in 2009.

The group has been referred to by several different names, including the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), commonly used by Western media outlets, UN and USA, as well as Turkistan Islamist Party (TIP) and East Turkistan Islamist Party (ETIP).

The group has been active mainly in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and its members are part of the Uighur ethnic group. The “East Turkistan” roughly corresponds to the Xinjiang region. In 1998 the group reportedly set up its headquarters in Taliban-controlled Kabul, Afghanistan. Tenuous at first, its links to al-Qaida has since grown, first openly confirmed by ETIM in 2016. In 2013, it began setting up in Syria, where its main operations has since been taking place. In Syria, it was closely allied to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (previously called Jabhat al-Nusra) and its later outfit HTS. It was considered to be part of the Syrian insurgents active in the intrastate and one-sided categories of UCDP organized violence in the Syrian civil war.

ETIM has been involved in the intrastate category of UCDP organised violence.