dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

Translated from Turkish by Yusuf Baybars OncuProf Alaeddin YalcinkayaSakarya University Head of International Relations’ DepartmentImportant Crossroads and the ChineseOccupation in the History of EasternTurkistanIntroductionTurkistan, meaning the Land of Turks, is the name of the territorythat extends from the Tian Shan Mountains towards the Caspian Sea;this area is divided into two, the Eastern and the Western parts. WesternTurkistan is composed of the region that contains Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,Tajikistan and Turkmenistan; this region was occupied by Russian forcesbetween 1715 and 1897. The Russian rule of Western Turkistan lasteduntil the collapse of the Soviet Union. Eastern Turkistan is currently underthe occupation of China and is known by the Chinese administration asthe Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.Turkistan, along with its Eastern and Western parts, has always beenthe subject of common-interest policies for imperial states. Particularlyin the 19 th century, significant ties could often be observed between theChinese, Russian, Indian and Turkistan states in policies, which wereeither conducted or supported by Great Britain. Such policies tended tobe directed against the Turks, and political conspiracies were concocted tosupport some particular Turkish political unit, only for it to be abandonedat the first opportunity to another colonial power. Great Britain, pretendingto be on the side of the Kashgar State, then persuaded China and Russiato eliminate this Muslim-Turkish state, also providing China with loans tothis end. It is highly significant that the policies in this region were definedas the “Great Game” . Working from these facts, in particular, in an attemptto understand the current occupation better, I will examine in detail therelationship between Great Britain and the Kashgar State, which wasestablished under the leadership of Bedevlet Yakup Khan, thus focusing on289