dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

FREEEAST TURKISTAN SYMPOSIUMgeography was regarded as a significant land defence chain by the Chinese. Chinadeemed it necessary to pacify the dominant element of the region, namely theTurkic population, to secure this defence line, and thus they implemented a policyof bringing Chinese immigrants from inner parts of China to East Turkistan,integrating East Turkistan into China, and Sinicizing the people of the regionthrough Chinese education. For instance, General Zuo Zong-Tang, who occupiedEast Turkistan, opened a Chinese school where he collected the children ofwealthy people and forced them to undergo Chinese education.“Although there was no reason to do so, the Chinese invaded our country. Theycarried out unimaginable atrocities and oppression. The Muslim people of Kashgarwere helpless against such a violent occupation and atrocity. The people of Kashgarare mourning their fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, husbands and wives.The fire of revenge is burning in the very heart of each member of this nation. TheChinese have recently started to collect our children and teach them the Chineselanguage and force them to carry out Chinese religious ceremonies in their schools;this has exhausted the patience of the Muslim people there.” 10The schools, known as “Shotang”, also instructed Uyghur children in Chineseduring the Yang Zengxin era. This assimilation policy, initiated by the Manchu-Qing dynasty, was also followed verbatim during the Nationalist Chinese (Guo-Min-Dang) administration.5. 2. The era of Nationalist China (Kuomintang)The left-wing revolutionist Chinese, including Sun Zhongshan, the founderof the Republic of China, changed “the idea of a Republic based on five ethnicgroups” ( ), which had been put forward by the right-wing conservativesduring the first years of the republic, into “the idea of Chinese Nationalism” (), which was primarily based on using the Han ethnic group to Sinicize() the other ethnic groups in the country. Their goal was to assimilateminor and weaker nations in China and to thus formulate a greater nation andestablish a nation state. Thus, the left-wing revolutionists represented by SunZhongshan were avid defenders of the principles of “Great Han Nationalism”() and “assimilation” (). 11 Sun Zhongshan did not regard theManchu people who ruled China for 300 years as Chinese people, and thereforedemanded that they be exiled from China. Nevertheless, the sovereignty right278