dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

Majeda MahlufAin Shams UniversityTranslated from Arabic by Yusuf MukaddemForced Emigration and the Uyghur People,Who have been Destroyed AbroadEast Turkistan is a fundamental part of the Muslim world and a basiccornerstone of Islamic civilization. From this land the Muslim world has gainedgreat canonists, annotators and Hadith-experts. It has a special place in thehistory of Islamic civilization. It will continue its existence with this name as longas Islam and Muslims survive on the earth.According to what history tells us, Turkistan is the land of the Turks. El-Hamawi reports in Mu’cem that it is the motherland of Turks. The Uyghur culturewas formed due to many significant historical, geographic and religious factors,evolving over more than 20 centuries. Its location on the historical Silk Roadprovided East Turkistan with different cultural characteristics. The cultures thatpassed through this land throughout history have mingled with it and affectedit; kinships were established, forming the melting pot that has resulted in today’sUyghur culture.The fact that the Uyghur people used the Arabic alphabet, which was alsoused by all other Turkic nations, after converting to Islam, clearly reveals that thelanguage they wrote was different from the language of their neighbor, China.The fact that they used the Arabic alphabet shows that they had their own cultureand historical heritage, completely different from that of the Chinese. The GreatWall of China, which the Chinese started to build before the birth of Jesus, alsosupports this fact. In other words, East Turkistan is not a part of China. This isalso mentioned by Ibn Battuta in his writings about his travels. The reason whythe Chinese built the Great Wall of China, which protects Chinese territory fromthe west to the east, was to secure their historical borders from their northernneighbors, including the Turks. Thus, it is the Chinese themselves who haveconstructed the strongest evidence establishing that East Turkistan is not a partof Chinese territory.405