ith the disintegration of the Soviet Union, six Turkic-speaking countries in central Asia gained their independence. With a population of around 30 million worldwide, seven Turkic countries (including Turkey) have joined the UN so far. These changes have further stimulated the Xingjiang Uighur people's awareness for independence.
Xinjiang's distinctive history provides a foundation for the East Turkestan people's pursuit of independence.
"We are not seeking independence, but rather revival of our country," said Abdulhekim, the Executive Chairman of the East Turkestan National Center. "We have always been an independent country historically, it is merely occupied by the Chinese now."
Despite the Chinese government's denial of this kind of historical viewpoint, accounts in a book recorded and edited by the Chinese, The Tangshu (
Like that of China, Xinjiang has a history of several thousand years of rise and fall. The Turkestan empire thrived during the epoch of China's South and North dynasties. Later on, following a victory over the Turkestan empire, the Uighur people established the Uighur kingdom, which was referred to in the Tangshu as the Nine-kinfolk Uighur Kingdom, meaning that the empire was formed by nine Uighur tribes.
It was said that the Uighur army once helped the Chinese emperor Tang suppress the rebellion of An Lu-shan and Shih Tzu-ming (安史之亂), which the East Turkestan people remain proud of, and use as proof that Xinjiang was not only an independent country, but actually helped China.
Nonetheless, after a long period of continuous wars, China's Ching Dynasty army, led by General Tso Chung-tang (左宗棠), conquered the Uighurs. In 1844, some 40 years after the Opium War, Ching rulers formally declared the occupied western region a province, naming it "Xinjiang," meaning "newly conquered territory."
However, the people of Xinjiang never stopped revolting against Chinese rule. In 1937, the Uighurs successfully carried out an uprising in southern Xinjiang and establishing the "Islamic Republic." But it was quickly suppressed by the local Chinese warlord Sheng Shih-tsai (
The unyielding Uighur people staged another rebellion in northern Xinjiang in 1944, this time establishing the People's Republic of East Turkestan.
"Our army recovered all the northern territories of Xinjiang except Urumqi," said Berat Haci, 89, who had participated in the negotiations with the communist Chinese general Wang Zhen (
"Wang Zhen said Xinjiang was an independent country, but that we must work together with them then in order to defeat the KMT," Haci said during an interview in Istanbul. "In the future, they would allow us to have either autonomy or independence. He said, `Lenin advocated self-government' of all nations with a population of over one million. We are communists and we must follow Lenin's instructions."
Believing such a promise, Turkestan troops consented to allow the Chinese communist army to enter Xinjiang peacefully. Soon after, in the mid-1950s, China established the so-called Xinjiang Autonomous Region and then began to suppress dissent among Uighur people there.
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