dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

FREEEAST TURKISTAN SYMPOSIUMlast independence movement. Interestingly, during the course of the disintegrationof the USSR, independent states were established, one after another, in WestTurkistan, whereas East Turkistan, whose independence was jointly crushed byChina and USSR, is still suffering extremely severe consequences.Since 1950 the Chinese administration has started to pursue a Chinesepopulation settlement policy in the region. Although in 1953, 75% of thepopulation in the region was Uyghur, official figures today state that the populationconsists of 50% Uyghur and 50% Chinese. An insurgence took place in Gulca inSeptember 1963; however this insurgence was severely repressed. Subsequently,many people emigrated to Kazakhstan. The Chinese administration violentlysuppressed the Tiananmen Square Events in April 1989, as the entire worldlooked on in bewilderment; this event was inspired by demands of freedom thatresulted from the disintegration of the Soviet Bloc. The Chinese governmentthen subjected the Uyghur people who had taken part in the events to evenmore oppression in their own region. Many people were sentenced to death andimmediately executed after mass trials in which arbitrary convictions were handeddown. Mosques that were closed during the Mao era, later to be reopened in theDeng Shiao Ping period, were to all intents and purposes closed once again afterthe 1990s, during the Xian Zemin era. Lists of those who were forbidden fromentering were hung on the doors of many mosques.Human rights violations in the region were brought onto the world agenda,one way or another, and various reports were prepared to call on the Chineseadministration to put an end to the violations of human rights and liberties; thiswas the case until the attacks of September 11. The Western world, who employedthe terms “human rights and liberties” as a means to apply political pressure to theSoviet Bloc countries until the disintegration of the Soviet Union, now started topursue policies against Muslim minorities and the nature of their relations withthe Muslim world changed. The new security concept that is currently pervasivethroughout the world provided the Chinese administration, which oppressivelyrules East Turkistan, grounds for all the international legitimacy she ever soughtand thus the oppression by the Chinese has gained a new dimension. The attacksof September 11 have created a psychological atmosphere that legitimizes andmakes possible labelling many things that belong to Muslim people and theIslamic faith as “terrorist”. China has taken this opportunity to declare the438