dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

Important Crossroads and the Chinese Occupation in the History of Eastern Turkistan / Prof Alaeddin Yalcinkayaof the governors who struggled against the central government, and a nationalgovernment was established on 12 November after insurgences in Kumul in 1931and in Turfan in 1932; this was followed by the establishment of the Republic ofEastern Turkistan in 1933 with Hodja Niyaz Hadji as president. 39The Soviet administration, maintaining an occupation of Western Turkistan,was uneasy about these developments and thus attacked Eastern Turkistan in1934, competing with China in the region; this was an area in which severeoppression and torture were rife until WWII. Russia later declared that shewould not object to the establishment of a Turkish administration in the region,for strategic reasons. With Russian support, the people of Eastern Turkistanrevolted in 1944. The independent Republic of Eastern Turkistan was declaredon 12 November, and Ali Han Töre became president. The civil war betweenNationalists and Communists was still underway at the time of the foundationof the republic; the Communists supported the move for an independent EasternTurkistan. This support was a tactical ploy, much like that of the Soviets andthe Chinese Communist Party; the Communists won the civil war in December1949, and after this the army of the People’s Republic of China occupied thecountry and Eastern Turkistan was annexed to China.Although some popular insurrections took place after the occupation ofEastern Turkistan, China made a policy of settling Han Chinese in the region toimplement a Sinicization policy in East Turkistan, both politically and ethnically.For the same reason, China changed the name from Eastern Turkistan intothe Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. In a way that was similar to formerperiods of occupation, movements led by the Uyghur people and other Muslim-Turks, such as resistance, insurgences and revolts against the occupying Chineseforces, have occasionally been observed. 40ConclusionThroughout history neighboring countries have ruled one another at differentgiven periods. This has frequently been the case for Turkistan, China, Russia andMongolia throughout the last two or three millennia. Any ruling power that hada corrupt administration would gradually lose power, and thus oppression wouldbe inevitable.303