East Turkestan

East TurkestanorEast Turkistan(Uyghur:شەرقىي تۈركىستان,ULY:Sherqiy Türkistan,UKY:Шәрқий Туркистан), also calledUyghuristan(Uyghur:ئۇيغۇرىستان,UKY:Уйғуристан), is a loosely-defined geographical region in thenorthwestern partof thePeople's Republic of China, on the cross roads ofEastandCentral Asia.The term was coined in the 19th century byRussianTurkologists, includingNikita Bichurin, who intended the name to replace the common Western term for the region, "Chinese Turkestan", which referred to theTarim BasininSouthern XinjiangorXinjiangas a whole during theQing dynasty.Beginning in the 17th century,Altishahr, which means "Six Cities" in Uyghur, became the Uyghur name for the Tarim Basin. Uyghurs also called the Tarim Basin "Yettishar," which means "Seven Cities," and even "Sekkizshahr", which means "Eight Cities" in Uyghur. Chinese dynasties from theHan dynastyto theTang dynastyhad called an overlapping area the "Western Regions".
Starting in the 20th century,Uyghurseparatists and their supporters used East Turkestan as an appellation for the whole of Xinjiang (the Tarim Basin andDzungaria) or for afuture independent statein present-day Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. They reject the name Xinjiang (meaning "New Frontier" in Chinese)because of the Chinese perspective reflected in the name, and prefer East Turkestan to emphasize the connection to other, westernTurkicgroups.
TheFirst East Turkestan Republicexisted from November 12, 1933, to April 16, 1934, and theSecond East Turkestan Republicexisted between November 12, 1944, and June 27, 1946. East Turkestan is a founding member of theUnrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization(UNPO) formed in 1991, where it was represented initially by the East Turkistan National Congress and later by theWorld Uyghur Congresspost 2004.In September 2004, theEast Turkistan Government in Exilewas established in Washington, D.C.
The term "East Turkestan" was coined in the 19th century byRussianTurkologists, includingNikita Bichurin, who intended the name to replace the common Western term for the region, "Chinese Turkestan", which referred to theTarim Basininsouthern Xinjiangor sometimes Xinjiang as a whole during theQing dynasty.The term "Uyghuristan" means 'land of Uyghurs'.The latter name was given to the region by medievalMuslim geographers.
In China, the termWestern Regions(Chinese:西域;pinyin:Xīyù;Wade–Giles:Hsi-yü;Uyghur: Qurighar, Қуриғар)referred to the regions west of theYumen Pass. During the 2nd century BC, Chinese writers called the city states of the northern and southern rim of theTaklamakan Desertthe "Walled city-states of the Western Regions".In 60 BC, theHan dynastyestablished theProtectorate of the Western Regions"in charge of all the oasis-states of theTarim Basin" which they ruled in indirectly with small agricultural military colonies.The Protector General was stationed at Wulei (west ofKarasahr).The city-states were able to conduct their own independent policies with each other. After the Western Han period that ended in 9 AD, China lost its authority over the Western Regions until it was restored in 94 AD and officially lasted until 107 AD.After the crackdown of internal separatist forces, the Eastern Han dynasty set up another protectorate known as theChief Official of the Western Regionsinstead.Since the Han, successive Chinese governments had to deal with secessionist movements and local rebellions from different peoples in the region.However, even when Xinjiang was not under Chinese political control, Xinjiang has long had "close contacts with China" that distinguish it from the independent Turkic countries of Central Asia.ASogdiansale contract of a female slave from the period of the Gaochang kingdom under the rule of Qu clanfrom 639 CE mentioned the Sogdian word "twrkstn", which may have referred to the lands to the east and north ofSyr Daryain the realm of theFirst Turkic Khaganate.
TheGökturks, known in ancient Chinese with pronunciation as Tutkyud as well as modern Chinese pronunciation as Tujue (Tu-chueh;Chinese:突厥;pinyin:Tūjué;Wade–Giles:T'u-chüeh), united the Turkic peoples and created a large empire, which broke into variousKhanatesor Khaganates; theWestern Turkic Khaganateinherited Xinjiang, but West Tujue became part of China'sTang dynastyuntil the ninth century. However, the terms for West Tujue andEast Tujuedo not have any relation with the terms West and East Turkestan."Turkestan", which means "region of the Turks", was defined byArabgeographers in the ninth and tenth centuries as the areas northeast of theSir River.For those Arab writers, the Turks wereTurkic-speakingnomadsand not the sedentaryPersian-speakingoasisdwellers.With the various migrations and political upheavals following the collapse of the Gökturk confederation and theMongol invasions, "Turkestan", according to the official Chinese position, gradually ceased to be a useful geographic descriptor and was not used.
During the sixteenth century, theChagatai Khanatecompleted theIslamificationandTurkificationof western Xinjiang and the surrounding region, known then asMoghulistan, while China'sMing dynastyheld the Eastern Areas. After theFall of the Ming dynasty, a western Mongol group established a polity in "ChineseTartary", as it was sometimes known, or in eastern Xinjiang, expanding southward into southern Xinjiang.In 1755, theQing dynastydefeated the MongolDzungar Khanateand captured two territories in Xinjiang. The northern territory, where the Dzungars lived, was calledDzungaria, while the southern areas, which the Dzungars controlled and mined, were called Huijiang (Hui-chiang;Chinese:回疆;pinyin:Huíjiāng;Wade–Giles:Hui-chiang;lit.'Muslim territory') orAltishahr.The term "Xinjiang", which, up until that time, simply meant all territories new to the Qing, gradually shifted in meaning for the Qing court to exclusively mean Dzungaria and Altishahr taken together. In 1764, theQianlong Emperormade this use of Xinjiang as aproper nameofficial and issued an imperial order defining Xinjiang as a "provincial administrative area". AfterGeneral Tso(Tso Ts'ung T'ang) suppressed theDungan revoltin 1882, Xinjiang was officially reorganized into a province and the name Xinjiang was popularized,superseding "Xiyu" in writing.
At the same time as the Chinese consolidation of control in Xinjiang, explorers from theBritishandRussian Empiresexplored, mapped, and delineated Central Asia in acompetition of colonial expansion. Several influential Russians would propose new terms for the territories, as in 1805 when the Russian explorer Timovski revived the use of "Turkestan" to refer toMiddle Asiaand "East Turkestan" to refer to theTarim Basineast of Middle Asia in southern Xinjiang or, in 1829, when the RussiansinologistNikita Bichurinproposed the use of "East Turkestan" to replace "Chinese Turkestan" for the Chinese territory east ofBukhara.The Russian Empire mused expansion into Xinjiang,which it informally called "Little Bukhara". Between 1851 and 1881, Russia occupied theIli valleyin Xinjiang and continued to negotiate with the Qing for trading and settlement rights for Russians.Regardless of the new Russian appellations, the original inhabitants of Central Asia generally continued not to use the word "Turkestan" to refer to their own territories.
After a spate of annexations in Middle Asia, Russia consolidated its holdings west of thePamir Mountainsas theTurkestan Governorateor "Russian Turkestan" in 1867.It is at this time that Western writers began to divide Turkestan into a Russian and a Chinese part.Although foreigners acknowledged that Xinjiang was a Chinese polity, and that there were Chinese names for the region, some travelers preferred to use "names that emphasized Turkic, Islamic, or Central Asian, i.e., non-Chinese characteristics".For contemporary British travelers and English-language material, there was no consensus on a designation for Xinjiang, with "Chinese Turkestan", "East Turkestan", "Chinese Central Asia", "Serindia",and "Sinkiang" being used interchangeably to describe the region of Xinjiang.Until the 20th century, locals used the names of cities or oases in their "territorial self-perception", which expanded or contracted as needed, such as Kashgaria out ofKashgarto refer to southwestern Xinjiang.Altishahr, or "six cities", collectively referred to six vaguely defined cities south of theTian Shan.
In 1912, theXinhai Revolutionoverthrew the Qing dynasty and created aRepublic of China. As Yuan Dahua, the last Qing governor, fled from Xinjiang, one of his subordinates,Yang Zengxin(楊增新), took control of the province and acceded in name to the Republic of China in March of the same year. In 1921, theSoviet Unionofficially defined theUyghursas the sedentaryTurkic peoplesfrom Chinese Turkestan as part of theirnation building policy in Central Asia.Multiple insurgencies arose against Yang's successorJin Shuren(金树仁) in the early 1930s throughout Xinjiang, usually led byHui people."East Turkestan" became a rallying cry for people who spokeTurkiand believed inIslamto rebel against Chinese authorities.
In the Kashgar region on November 12, 1933, Uyghur separatists declared the short-livedand self-proclaimedEast Turkestan Republic(ETR), using the term "East Turkestan" to emphasize the state's break from China and new anti-China orientation.Influenced bypan-Islamismandpan-Turkism, these separatists established a constitution which mandatedSharialaw in the short-lived Islamic republic.
The First ETR gave political meaning to the erstwhile geographical term of East Turkestan.It was not recognized by any country, however.ChinesewarlordSheng Shicai(盛世才) quickly defeated the ETR and ruled Xinjiang for the decade after 1934 with close support from theSoviet Union.
Eventually, the Soviet Union exploited the change in power from Sheng toKuomintangofficials to create the puppetSecond East Turkestan Republic(1944–1946) in present-dayIli Kazakh Autonomous Prefectureto exploit its minerals, later justifying it as a national liberation movement against the "reactionary" Kuomintang regime.Amid the anti-Han programs and policiesand exclusion of "pagans",ornon-Muslims, from the separatist government, Kuomintang leaders based in Dihua (Ürümqi) appealed to the long Chinese history in the region to justify its sovereignty over Xinjiang. In response, Soviet historians producedrevisionist historiesto help the ETR justify its own claims to sovereignty, with statements such as that the Uyghurs were the "most ancient Turkic people" that had contributed to world civilization.In June 1946, the Soviet Union withdrew its support for the ETR.
Traditionally, scholars had thought of Xinjiang as a "cultural backwater" compared to the other Central Asian states during theIslamic Golden Age.Local British and USconsuls, also intrigued by the separatist government, published their own histories of the region. The Soviet Uyghur histories produced during its support of the ETR remain the basis of Uyghur nationalist publications today.
At the end of theChinese Civil Warin 1949, with Xinjiang divided between Kuomintang forces and ETR secessionists, the Communist leadershippersuaded both governmentsto surrender and accept the succession of the People's Republic of China governmentand negotiated the establishment of Communist provincial governments inYining(Ghulja) and Dihua.On October 1, 1955,Chinese Communist PartyChairmanMao Zedongdesignated Xinjiang a "Uyghur Autonomous Region",creating a regionwide Uyghur identity which overtook Uyghurs' traditionally local andoasis-based identities.Although the Soviet Union initially suppressed the publications of its past Uyghur studies programs, after theSino-Soviet splitin the 1960s, it revived its Uyghur studies program as part of an "ideological war" against China.The term "East Turkestan" was popularized in academic works,but inconsistently: at times, the term East Turkestan only referred to as the area in Xinjiang south of theTian Shanmountains, corresponding to theTarim Basin;the areas north of the Tian Shan mountains were called Dzungaria or Zungaria.Tursun Rakhimov, a Uyghur historian for theCommunist Party of the Soviet Unionduring the Sino-Soviet split,argued in his 1981 book "Fate of the Non-Han Peoples of the PRC" that "both" East Turkestan and Dzungaria were conquered by China and "renamed" Xinjiang. Occasionally, he used East Turkestan and Xinjiang interchangeably.Concurrently, during theCultural Revolutionand the Revolution's campaigns against "local nationalism", the government had come to associate the term East Turkestan with Uyghur separatism and "foreign hostile forces[zh]" and forbade its usage.Uyghur nationalist historianTurghun Almasand his bookUyghurlar(The Uyghurs) and Uyghur nationalist accounts of history were galvanized by Soviet stances on history, "firmly grounded" in Soviet Turcological works, and both heavily influenced and partially created by Soviet historians and Soviet works on Turkic peoples.Soviet historiography spawned the rendering of Uyghur history found in Uyghurlar.Almas claimed that Central Asia was "the motherland of the Uyghurs" and also the "ancient golden cradle of world culture".The global trends set by theDissolution of the Soviet Unionin the 1990s and the rise of globalIslamismandpan-Turkismrevived separatist sentiments in Xinjiang and led to a wave of political violence that killed 162 people between 1990 and 2001.
In 2001, the government of China lifted its ban on state media's using the terms "Uyghurstan"or "East Turkestan",as part of a general opening up after theSeptember 11 attacksto the world about political violence in Xinjiang and a plea for international help to suppress East Turkestan terrorists.In 2004, theEast Turkistan Government in Exilewas established in Washington, D.C. under the leadership ofAnwar Yusuf Turanito strive for East Turkistan's independence.To justify the PRC's claim to East Turkestan, a white paper was published in 2019 which made a statement that 'East Turkestan' never existed and it was only called 'Xinjiang' and been part of China since early history.East Turkestan was historically not treated as an inseparable part of China, but rather colonized by Han Chinese who had little in common with the Uyghur population.
On February 28, 2017, it was announced by theQira Countygovernment inHotan Prefecturethat those who reported others for stitching the 'star and crescent moon' insignia on their clothing or personal items or having the words 'East Turkestan' on their mobile phone case, purse, or other jewelry, would be eligible for cash payments.
As thehistory of Xinjiangin particular is contested between thegovernment of ChinaandUyghur separatists, the official and common name ofXinjiang(with itsUyghurloanwordcounterpart,Shinjang) is rejected by those seeking independence."East Turkestan", a term of Russian origin, asserts a continuity with a "West Turkestan" or the now-independent states ofSoviet Central Asia.Not all of those states accept the designation of "Turkestan", however. For instance,Tajikistan'sPersian-speaking population feels more closely aligned withIranandAfghanistan.For separatists,East Turkestan is coterminous withXinjiangor the independent state thatthey would like to leadin Xinjiang.Proponents of the term "East Turkestan" argue that the name Xinjiang is arrogant, because if the individual Chinese characters are to be taken literally and not as aproper name, then Xinjiang means "New Territory".Some Chinese scholars have advocated a name change for the region or a reversion to the older termXiyu("Western Regions"), arguing that "Xinjiang" might mislead people into thinking that Xinjiang is "new" to China. Other scholars defend the name, noting that Xinjiang was new to the lateQing dynasty, which gave Xinjiang its current name.
In modern separatist usage,"Uyghuristan", which means "land of the Uyghurs", is a synonym for Xinjiang or a potential state in Xinjiang,like "East Turkestan".There is no consensus among separatists about whether to use "East Turkestan" or "Uyghurstan"."East Turkestan" has the advantage of also being the name of two historic political entities in the region, while Uyghurstan appeals to modern ideas of ethnicself-determination. East Turkistan was also used in the context of Yaqub Beg's Kashgaria in the mid-1800s. Uyghurstan is also a difference in emphasis in that it excludes more peoples in Xinjiang than just theHan,but the "East Turkestan" movementis still aUyghurphenomenon.KazakhsandHuiMuslims are largely alienated from the movement,as are Uyghurs who live closer to the eastern provinces of China. Separatist sentiment is strongest among the Uyghurdiaspora,who practice what has been called "cyber-separatism", encouraging the use of "East Turkestan" on their websites and literature.Historically, "Uyghurstan" referred to the northeastern oasis region of "Kumul-Turfan"."Chinese Turkestan", while synonymous with East Turkestan in historical terms,is not used today, rejected by Uyghur separatists for the "Chinese" part of the name and by China for the "Turkestan" part.In China, the terms "East Turkestan", "Uyghurstan",and even "Turkestan" alone connote old Western imperialism and the past East Turkestan republics and modern militant groups, such as theEast Turkestan Islamic Movement(ETIM). The government of China conflates the violence of differing separatist groups, such as the ETIM and theEast Turkestan Liberation Organization, as coming simply from "East Turkestan forces".Chinesediplomatic missionshave objected to foreigners' use of "East Turkestan". They argue that the term is political and no longer geographical or historical and that its use represents "a provocation" to the sovereignty of China.The historical definitions for "East Turkestan" are multifarious and ambiguous, reflecting that, outside of Chinese administration,the area now called "Xinjiang" was not geographically or demographically a single region.
The territorial definition, as claimed by the East Turkistan Government in Exileand International Support for Uyghurs,includes the bulk of Xinjiang (excluding the disputed territory ofAksai Chin), as well as parts of westernGansu(includingSubei Mongol Autonomous County,Aksay Kazakh Autonomous County,Dunhuangcity, andGuazhou County) andQinghai(LenghuandMangnai). TheWorld Uyghur Congressconsiders East Turkestan to be the area of Xinjiang along with territory claimed to be annexed by a "neighboring Chinese province" in 1949.