dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

FREEEAST TURKISTAN SYMPOSIUMthe interest of the Turkish people in the outer world decreased to a minimumlevel. East Turkistan was not an exception in this environment of indifference;Turkey also remained indifferent to a number of situations that occurred closeto home.As the bi-polar world that had been created after the Second World Warpushed Turkey and the entire Islamic world into a passive situation, the abovementionednegative atmosphere continued to worsen. In a period in whichTurkey was unable to adapt herself to either the Eastern or the Western blocs,due to her position, Turkey leaned towards the influence of the Western securitypact in foreign policy. Thus, the Turkish world remained outside the influenceof the Socialist Bloc, as the Eastern Bloc countries and the Socialist world werenot directly observable from Ankara, but dealt with by policies determined inWashington.However, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 created a new geopoliticalsituation in the region and it also sparked off a revival of Turkey’s interests inCentral Asia. These interests brought a new approach; the competition in Asiadid more to bring Turkey closer to the region, causing great competition in theinternational arena.While trying to create new opportunities and open new areas of influencein the 1990s, Turkey focused on the problems of East Turkistan on bothgovernmental and non-governmental levels in parallel with her increasedinfluence in the region; this issue started to appear more on the national agenda.The first instance of a transformation to the international scene was an increasein studies on the Uyghurs in Turkey. Isa Yusuf Alptekin, one of the leadersin East Turkistan, had the opportunity to meet all the political party leaders,deputies and bureaucrats in Ankara in 1991; here human rights violations, theproblem of assimilation and the policy of Chinese oppression in East Turkistanwere discussed in detail, with a new relationship being established between thetwo nations. Alptekin met with Mesut Yilmaz, Necmettin Erbakan, AlparslanTurkesh, Suleyman Demirel and Erdal Inonu, the political party leaders of thetime, and asked for support from them all, requesting that they play a moreactive role in relieving the problems of the people of East Turkistan. SuleymanDemirel, the prime minister, promised to help with the relevant topics and to506