dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

Turkey and the Islamic World in the Solution of the East Turkistan Problem / Ahmet Emin Dagexert all efforts to bring the East Turkistan problem onto the internationalplatform so that the problem could be resolved.The most meaningful meeting during this period happened with Turgut Ozal,the president of Turkey. Ozal met with Alptekin and listened to the problems thatwere being experienced; the Uyghur leader handed Mr. Ozal the East Turkistanflag, something that he had carried on his chest for 60 years; this symbolic gestureindicated that Turkey was the new leader in this matter. Alptekin then repeatedhis request for support. As with all the leaders, Ozal promised to support theUyghur leader.Thus, Turkey’s interest in the regional communities went beyond mereemotion on the public level, but had now taken on an official aspect and thesematters were now included in her regional policies. The leaders at that timeincreased their efforts to develop these relations by paying frequent visits toCentral Asia. An official visit to East Turkistan to create a commission composedof Turkish delegates on December 1992 and the introduction of the problemonto UN agenda were even discussed; however, nothing concrete came of thesediscussions.The Turkish World Meeting, held in Izmir in 1995, was attended by morethan 800 delegates from different regions of the world, including East Turkistan.The final declaration of the meeting requested that greater efforts be made toimprove the conditions of the East Turkistan people, but no subsequent concreteimprovement was observed.One of the basic factors that prevented any significant improvement in thesolution of the East Turkistan problem, despite such intense demands and greatdetermination, was the international conjuncture and Turkey’s harmony (or lackthereof ) with this conjuncture. That is, as the dimensions and aspects of the newrelationships between West and East were being determined according to a setof priorities, in foreign policy, Turkey, who was having problems shedding habitsinstilled by the Cold War, tended to consider herself as a supportive element ofWestern initiatives instead of looking at the regional problems from her own view.This basic error played a role in preventing Ankara from carrying the problemonto the international arena. Waiting for the West to do something to solve theproblem in East Turkistan, the failure of Turkey to make use of any mechanisms507