dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

FREEEAST TURKISTAN SYMPOSIUMand associations met in Istanbul and established an umbrella structure, called theNational Centre. At the same time, China announced that Turkey was supportingGulca and similar events that had occurred in East Turkistan; the Chinesegovernment requested that the Turkish government prohibit the activities of EastTurkistan organizations in the country during the frequent visits to Turkey byChinese officials. On the eve of the 1999 elections, Turkey enacted CommuniquéNo. 1998/36, December 23, 1998, which restricted the activities of the Uyghur inTurkey. The communiqué enacted by the government of Mesut Yilmaz preventedactivities of Eastern Turkistan organizations in Turkey, prohibited the of the blueflag with a moon and star in activities organized for East Turkistan and bannedpoliticians and state officials from joining in such activities. In line with thisstrategy, the Uyghur people changed their strategy and decided to continue theirefforts in Europe. The communiqué was repealed after the events of July 5 inUrumchi with another communiqué, No. 2009/15, in September of the sameyear. 11 The Chinese government has managed to suppress many activities held insupport of East Turkistan in Turkey by using the former communiqué before theintroduction of the latter. 12There are various East Turkistan associations and foundations that are nowoperating in Turkey. In this section, we will try to give some general informationabout these organizations.East Turkistan Migrants Association 13The very first East Turkistan association established in Turkey, the EastTurkistan Migrants Association was founded by Isa Yusuf Alptekin and HaciOsman Tastan in 1960. Among its members were members of Kyrgyz andUzbek nations as well as Kazakhs and Uyghur Turks. The association attained anonprofit organization status with Decision No. 4322 of the Council of Ministers,12.04.1993. The Association defines its objective as “working to include thepeople of East Turkistan who have migrated to Turkey from East Turkistan intothe Turkish community.” The Uyghurs left the association as a result of internalproblems raised in the association after the death of Isa Yusuf Alptekin. Today,the association maintains their existence under the management of the Kazakhsof East Turkistan. After the establishment of the Kazakhstan Republic after thedissolution of the Soviet Union, the Kazakh government called all Kazakh people532