dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

FREEEAST TURKISTAN SYMPOSIUMthat could accelerate this movement also meant that she was unable to introducethe problems of East Turkistan onto any prioritized agenda in the West, and thusthere was no transformation in the relationship between China and the West.Meanwhile, the Chinese government sent warnings to Turkey in regard to theEast Turkistan issue, which had begun to occupy more space on Turkey’s nationalagenda than it had in the past. The Chinese government stated that the messagesthat Turkey had sent about East Turkistan were considered to be meddling in theinternal affairs of China, and responded by indicating the international supportfor the PKK. Even though Ankara tried to establish a balance with intellectualbilateral relations with China and by trying to create efforts to increase Turaniinfluence in Central Asia, the Chinese pressure yielded positive results, at leastduring this period of internal instability in Turkey. For example, Mesut Yilmaz,the prime minister, banned official participation in East Turkistan activities, andchanged the name of a park in Sultanahmet that had been named after Isa YusufAlptekin, the great Uyghur leader, and banned the use of East Turkistan flags.Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the mayor of the Istanbul Metropolitan Council at thetime, opposed the decision and emphasized that this was a betrayal not only ofthe Uyghurs, but of the Turkish world.Foreign policy engagements in Turkey faced serious disadvantages in termsof the East Turkistan issue, due to ever-increasing commercial and politicalrelationships with China. Therefore, the improved relationship of Turkey withChina in the first decade of the new millennium meant that positive steps in theEast Turkistan issue were limited. As governmental change in 2003 brought abouta wind of change, both on the inside and outside, the hopes for East Turkistanonce more began to lift.The most important difference that separated this new period from the earlierone was the introduction of greater freedom in activities that were being carriedout by the people from East Turkistan in Turkey. Even though the new governmentloosened the restrictions on participation, it was not able to make any significantprogress in terms of finding a fundamental solution to the problem. As the role ofTurkey in regard to East Turkistan cannot be thought of independently from herrelationship with China, one can clearly see a tendency to side with the benefit inbilateral relations. Encouraging China to take steps to improve the living conditions508