The flags of Turkey and East Turkestan have a similar design. Both sport a crescent moon in the middle. The only difference between the two flags is the background color -- red for Turkey and blue for East Turkestan.
Concerning relations between the Turkish and the East Turkestan people, Turan Yazgan, a professor at Istanbul University and chairman of the Turkic World Research Foundation, said: "We Turks and the Uighur have the same ethnic ancestry. We did not delineate this ourselves, but Allah did; it is His will. There are two places in the world where the Turkic people still have no freedom. One is northern Iran, the other is East Turkestan. We have a responsibility to help."
This is the second part of a seven-part series by Cao Chang-ching, a long-time observer of ethnic liberation movements in China. Today's article was translated by Taipei Times staff translator Laura Lee.
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