East Turkestan

thumb|350px|Extent of East Turkestan in Central Asia, as defined by the [[East Turkistan Government in Exile]]

East Turkestan or East Turkistan (, : , : ) is a loosely defined geographical region in the northwestern part of the People's Republic of China, on the cross roads of East and Central Asia. The term was coined in the 19th century by Russian Turkologists, including Nikita Bichurin, who intended the name to replace the common Western term for the region, "Chinese Turkestan", which referred to the Tarim Basin in Southern Xinjiang. because of the Chinese perspective reflected in the name, and prefer East Turkestan to emphasize the connection to other, western Turkic groups.

The First East Turkestan Republic existed from November 12, 1933, to April 16, 1934, and the Second East Turkestan Republic existed between November 12, 1944, and June 27, 1946. East Turkestan is a founding member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) formed in 1991, where it was represented initially by the East Turkistan National Congress and later by the World Uyghur Congress post 2004. In September 2004, the East Turkistan Government in Exile was established in Washington, D.C.

Etymology

The term "East Turkestan" was coined in the 19th century by Russian Turkologists, including Nikita Bichurin, who intended for the name to replace the common Western term for the region, "Chinese Turkestan", which referred to the Tarim Basin in southern Xinjiang or Xinjiang as a whole. The term "Uyghuristan" means 'land of Uyghurs'. The latter name was given to the region by medieval Muslim geographers.

History

Pre-20th century

thumb|right|Cities of the [[Tarim Basin region, 1 BC]]

In China, the term Western Regions (; Uyghur: Qurighar, Қуриғар) referred to the regions west of the Yumen Pass. During the 2nd century BC, Chinese writers called the city states of the northern and southern rim of the Taklamakan Desert the "Walled city-states of the Western Regions". In 60 BC, the Han dynasty established the Protectorate of the Western Regions "in charge of all the oasis-states of the Tarim Basin" which they ruled in indirectly with small agricultural military colonies. The Protector General was stationed at Wulei (west of Karasahr). 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 the Chief Official of the Western Regions instead. Since the Han, successive Chinese governments had to deal with secessionist movements and local rebellions from different peoples in the region.

The Gökturks, known in ancient Chinese with pronunciation as Tutkyud as well as modern Chinese pronunciation as Tujue (Tu-chueh; ), united the Turkic peoples and created a large empire, which broke into various Khanates or Khaganates; the Western Turkic Khaganate inherited Xinjiang, but West Tujue became part of China's Tang dynasty until the ninth century. However, the terms for West Tujue and East Tujue do not have any relation with the terms West and East Turkestan. "Turkestan", which means "region of the Turks", was defined by Arab geographers in the ninth and tenth centuries as the areas northeast of the Sir River. For those Arab writers, the Turks were Turkic-speaking nomads and not the sedentary Persian-speaking oasis dwellers.

thumb|right|Qing-era [[Chinese painting|painting depicting a Chinese campaign against Jahangir Khoja's forces in Xinjiang, 1828]]

During the sixteenth century, the Chagatai Khanate completed the Islamification and Turkification of western Xinjiang and the surrounding region, known then as Moghulistan, while China's Ming dynasty held the Eastern Areas. After the Fall of the Ming dynasty, a western Mongol group established a polity in "Chinese Tartary", as it was sometimes known, or in eastern Xinjiang, expanding southward into southern Xinjiang. In 1755, the Qing dynasty defeated the Mongol Dzungar Khanate and captured two territories in Xinjiang. The northern territory, where the Dzungars lived, was called Dzungaria, while the southern areas, which the Dzungars controlled and mined, were called Huijiang (Hui-chiang; ) or Altishahr. which it informally called "Little Bukhara". Between 1851 and 1881, Russia occupied the Ili valley in 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. It is at this time that Western writers began to divide Turkestan into a Russian and a Chinese part. and "Sinkiang" being used interchangeably to describe the region of Xinjiang. "East Turkestan" became a rallying cry for people who spoke Turki and believed in Islam to rebel against Chinese authorities. Influenced by pan-Islamism and pan-Turkism, these separatists established a constitution which mandated Sharia law in the short-lived Islamic republic.

The First ETR gave political meaning to the erstwhile geographical term of East Turkestan. and exclusion of "pagans", On October 1, 1955, Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong designated Xinjiang a "Uyghur Autonomous Region", Although the Soviet Union initially suppressed the publications of its past Uyghur studies programs, after the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s, it revived its Uyghur studies program as part of an "ideological war" against China. Tursun Rakhimov, a Uyghur historian for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 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 the Cultural Revolution and the Revolution's campaigns against "local nationalism", the government had come to associate the term East Turkestan with Uyghur separatism and "" and forbade its usage. 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 the Dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and the rise of global Islamism revived separatist sentiments in Xinjiang and led to a wave of political violence that killed 162 people between 1990 and 2001. as part of a general opening up after the September 11 attacks to the world about political violence in Xinjiang and a plea for international help to suppress East Turkestan terrorists. 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.

Current status

As the history of Xinjiang in particular is contested between the government of China and Uyghur separatists, the official and common name of Xinjiang (with its Uyghur loanword counterpart, 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 of Soviet Central Asia. For separatists, East Turkestan is coterminous with Xinjiang or the independent state that they would like to lead in 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 a proper name, then Xinjiang means "New Territory". like "East Turkestan". There is no consensus among separatists about whether to use "East Turkestan" or "Uyghurstan". but the "East Turkestan" movement is still a Uyghur phenomenon. Kazakhs and Hui Muslims are largely alienated from the movement, Historically, "Uyghurstan" referred to the northeastern oasis region of "Kumul-Turfan". "Chinese Turkestan", while synonymous with East Turkestan in historical terms,

In China, the terms "East Turkestan", "Uyghurstan", and International Support for Uyghurs, includes the bulk of Xinjiang (excluding the disputed territory of Aksai Chin), as well as parts of western Gansu (including Subei Mongol Autonomous County, Aksay Kazakh Autonomous County, Dunhuang city, and Guazhou County) and Qinghai (Lenghu and Mangnai). The World Uyghur Congress considers East Turkestan to be the area of Xinjiang along with territory claimed to be annexed by a "neighboring Chinese province" in 1949.

East Turkestan

Etymology

History

Pre-20th century

Current status

See also

References

Further reading