dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

FREEEAST TURKISTAN SYMPOSIUMbeen heard and their efforts have not succeeded in dispelling any fears that resultfrom such propaganda.Connected with this last point is that the demands of Turkistan are not clearto either the public opinion in the Islamic world or to world-wide opinion; theimage in people’s minds is that the people of Turkistan have rejected the rule ofthe Chinese government and that some of the people have expressed this rejectionwith armed operations. At the same time, what the people of Turkistan actuallywant is not clear, and this gives ample scope for the Chinese media to give theirown message, which receives a greater degree of acceptance.In addition to these difficulties inherent in the aspirations of Turkistan, thereis also an anti-Islamic identity, not only presented by the Chinese authorities,but also by other regional countries; this is particularly the case in the republicsof Central Asia, which are still mostly under the control of the same elite thatwas dominant during the Communist Era. These elites are still waging a struggleagainst the Islamic identity of their communities; thus it is not surprising thatthey restrict the aspirations of the people of East Turkistan, which are aimed atmaintaining their Islamic identity(2)These circumstances should not lead to despair and in no way means that thedoors in the future are completely closed; but it is necessary that the activists whoare involved in this issue think carefully about how to deal with the situation in amore productive way. In this matter there are several governing principles:· What is really damaging the case is not the Chinese government, but thedespair of the activists of their success, even in the remote future.· Targets which cannot be achieved should not be forgone, thus what hasnot been achieved or attained by the present generation should not beabandoned; rather, they should be passed down to other generations whomay have better conditions that will enable them to achieve what theprevious generations could not.· The people should be aware that the ultimate goals in some of the conflictscan only be achieved through phased targets at first and that there will be580