Uyghur

This book was born from the recognition of the limited knowledge and understanding Thai people have about what is being done to the Uyghur people in the People's Republic of China. Though there has been some reporting on the subject online and in newspapers in the past 1-2 years, they are mostly short articles that tend to favour the Chinese government's narrative. Moreover, the military dictatorship in Thailand desires to be closer with the Communist Party of China at this time means pro-China propaganda and the need to not embarrass a close ally, inevitably leading to pressure for the media to hide the truth, creating an overall atmosphere of avoidance for the people not to see the reality of the suffering being inflicted upon the Uyghur people.

Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal and his team of volunteer translators - undergraduates from Chulalongkorn University - have produced a labor of love.

Their selfless work in translating these documents demonstrates the noblest ideals of human sympathy and commitment to humanitarian concern for

our neighbors, regardless of religion, language, or ethnicity.

Forward by Louisa Greve, A Director of External Affairs, Uyghur Human Rights Project

In this volume including the essays from Ian Johnson, James Millward, Rachel Harris, Sigal Samuel, Darren Byler and Uyghur Human Rights Project.

"Like all multi-lingual computing, Arabic computing is now firmly in the domain of Unicode. Unicode is an industrial protocol with the status of international agreement. It is designed to encode the elements of all known script systems in such a way that they become interchangeable between programs and operating systems. Its implementation is well underway.

Unicode eliminates the need to tamper with fonts to get special characters, but it is not a font. For legible text on screen and paper, Unicode depends on compatible fonts with the required characters, where necessary with additional dedicated font technology."

Europe is increasingly confronted with China’s footprint in different geostrategic spaces. This publication offers analysis on major competitive dynamics. Accordingly, the team of the Institute for Peace Support and Conflict Management (IFK) examines soft power outreach, economic facts, socio-economic trends and monetary policy in tandem with military capacities.
Six authors provide analysis for their areas of expertise, covering a wide geographical range. In addition, four authors explore strategic narratives shaping China’s current foreign policy, in order to make the political moves of a new global power easier to understand. What are the strategic convergence points for the EU in a competitive environment or rival setting with Beijing? The present volume highlights this crucial question, but also addresses options for cooperation.

Newly uncovered evidence from public and non-public Chinese government and academic sources indicates that labor transfers of ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) to other regions and other provinces are part of a state-run scheme to forcibly uproot them, assimilate them and reduce their population density. An independent legal analysis conducted on the basis of the new evidence presented in this report concludes that Xinjiang’s labor transfer scheme meets the criteria for Crimes Against Humanity of Forcible Transfer and Persecution as defined under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The present study draws on previously untranslated material, most notably the “Nankai Report,” deleted from the Chinese internet in mid-2020 but obtained by the author. 

The Nankai Report gives strong and authoritative evidence for large-scale, coercive stated-driven recruitments into labor transfers and for the securitized nature of such transfers to other provinces. It notes that these transfers are intended to “reduce labor costs” for companies.

However, the Report also makes it clear that poverty alleviation through labor transfer is a means to a more troubling end. First, it bluntly states that the state took the “drastic short-term measure” of placing many Uyghurs into “Education and Training Centers” (a euphemism for re-education camps). Second, it notes that labor transfers represent a long-term measure to promote “assimilation” and “reduce Uyghur population density”. The Report recommends that this program should be “initiated quietly” with “no need to overly publicize this internationally.”

Overall, the evidence shows that labor transfers constitute intentional displacements of populations deemed “problematic” by the government. This is complemented by two previously unreported campaigns: a) a large-scale transfer scheme by which hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority farmers and pastoralists transfer usage rights to their land or herds to state-run collectives for the purpose of “liberating” them to become industrial laborers; and b) a campaign to settle 300,000 additional Han Chinese settlers in Uyghur heartland regions by 2022 in order to “optimize southern Xinjiang’s population structure.”

Based on the author’s survey of Chinese academic research and government figures, up to 1.6 million transferred laborers are estimated to be generally at risk of being subjected to forced labor (see Section 2.7).

ÖZET Bilmeceler, soru ve cevap olmak üzere iki ana unsuru bulunan anonim halk edebiyatı türlerinden biridir. Türk halk edebiyatının en yaygın kullanım alanına sahip türlerinden olan bilmeceler, manzum ya da mensur olabilir. Bilmeceler, Uygur Türkleri arasında da yaygın bir kullanıma sahiptir. Uygur Türklerinin insana, nesneye ve tabiata bakıĢ tarzını ortaya koyan Uygur bilmeceleri, soyut ve somut her türlü konuyu içermesi bakımından zengin bir muhtevaya sahiptir. Bu makalemizde, Uygur bilmecelerinin yaratım, aktarım, içerik, Ģekil ve iĢlev özellikleri hakkında bilgi verilecektir. ABSTRACT Riddles which are among the folk literature types have two key elements as the question and the answer. They are one of the commonly used types of Turkish Folk Literature and they can be both poetic and prose. Besides, they have a common usage among Uighur Turks. Uighur riddles which present the viewpoints of Uighur Turks to human, object and nature have a wide content as they include every kinds of abstract and concrete topics. In this paper, the information about creation, transfer, content, form and function features of Uighur riddles will be given.

Along the Silk Road(s) from north-western China (Xinjiang) to western Anatolia we
find a number of shared oral epic traditions. For many oral epics a continuous line
from the Uyghurs of Xinjiang to the Turks of Turkey can be established. The main
creators and bearers of this oral tradition are both Turkic-speaking and Iranianspeaking
ethnic groups. When studying the oral epics that have flourished along
the Silk Road, a number of theoretical questions arise: the interaction of oral and literate
traditions; the crossing of language borders and the concomitant transformations;
and the contrast and mutual enrichment of nomadic and urban
civilizations. In this article the focus is on the Turkic-speaking peoples of Xinjiang
and their rich oral epic heritage. Despite the considerable negative effects of the
period of the Cultural Revolution, the performance of oral epics has continued
into the twenty-first century among the Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, and Uyghurs of Xinjiang.
While in many areas of post-Soviet Central Asia the oral epic has become an “endangered
species,” the Turkic ethnic groups of Xinjiang have tenaciously preserved their
oral traditions. These traditions therefore play an important role in the study of the
epic as a living form of oral verbal art.
KEYWORDS: Oral epics, orality and literacy, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Uyghur, Xinjiang

The origins of the Uyghur’s movement for basic human rights are traceable to the Post-Cold War era, which witnessed the decline of the Soviet Union, the subsequent independence of Central Asian countries, the rise of global Islamism and pan-Turkism, alongside the pervasive ascent of Chinese chauvinism, which is characterised by a contempt for ethnic minority nationalism and oppression of those who express dissent. The Chinese heavy-handed approach towards haltering these movements is always meant to be counter-productive. The ‘terrorism’ label assigned on all Uyghurs indiscriminately and the ensuing cycle of repression-violence-repression creates an environment fraught with animosity, hostility and aggression, which only culminates in more bloodshed.

In a small Uyghur village in southern Xinjiang, sixty women have squeezed themselves into a large guestroom in a village house.  Behind closed doors in the baking mid-summer heat, they recite from the Qur’an, perform dhikr, and they cry.
    This form of women’s ritual practice is widespread across the Uyghur region of Xinjiang. Within the village, participation in these rituals offers women status, community, and opportunities for artistic and emotional expression. In the wider political arena, however, they are doubly marginalized: they earn the disapproval of the new Muslim orthodoxy and the suspicion of the authorities who seek to suppress or control ritual activities outside the sphere of official religion.
      In this paper I argue that investigation of the Uyghur village soundscape provides important insights into the ways in which gendered and ethnic hierarchies are sonically negotiated within village society, in relation to the state, and in relation to global trends in Islam.

Analyzes official policies towards Turkic (Uyghur) language and education, 1877-1912, through the concept of linguistic culture. Distinguishes later twentieth-century European language policies, which usually serve as the model for thinking about language and the state, from policies informed by Chinese modes of thought. (In press.)

Doğu Türkistan Uygurları ve Çin Halk Cumhuriyeti arasında yaşanan çatışmalar, uzun bir tarihçesi olan asimetrik ve etnopolitik bir çatışma örneği olarak bugün hala varlığını sürdürmektedir. 20. Yüzyılın ikinci yarısında iki kez bağımsızlık girişiminde bulunmasına rağmen Doğu Türkistan Cumhuriyeti, uzun süre ayakta kalamamış ve Çin Halk Cumhuriyeti tarafından işgal edilmiştir. Bu çalışmada Uygur- Çin çatışmasının kökenleri ve boyutları betimleyici yönteme başvurularak ortaya konulmuştur. Teorik kısımda ise çatışma, etnopolitik çatışma ve asimetrik çatışma kavramlarının yanı sıra kendi kaderini tayin hakkı konusundaki farklı yaklaşımlar ele alınmıştır. Söz konusu çatışmayı ortaya çıkaran salt insan hakları ihlalleri değil, aynı zamanda Uygurların siyasi ve iktisadi karar alımından dışlanmış olmalarıdır. Sincan Uygur Özerk Bölgesi’nde yaşayan Uygurlar siyasette ve önemli kadrolarda nüfuslarıyla orantılı olarak temsil edilmemektedirler. Çatışmayı ortaya çıkaran ve besleyen nedenler; Uygurların kendi kaderini tayin hakkını kullanamaması, Çin’in pamuk, kömür, altın ve bakır gibi hammaddelerini sömürmesi, Han- Çinlilerinin 1950’li yıllar itibariyle Doğu Türkistan’a (Sincan) göç ettirilmesi, Çin’in din, eğitim- dil, sağlık, çalışma, ekonomi, çevre ve güvenlik politikalarında uygulamış olduğu baskı ve ayrımcılık politikalarıdır. Türkiye ve Amerika Birleşik Devletleri Uygurların insan haklarıyla ilgili farkındalık yaratma çabalarına rağmen üçüncü taraf olarak sınırlı bir rol oynamışlardır. Birleşmiş Milletler Güvenlik Konseyi ise Sincan Bölgesi’nde işlenen insanlık suçlarına karşı “koruma sorumluluğu” nu yerine getirmemektedir.

ÖZET Zengin ve köklü bir kültüre sahip olan Uygur Türkleri, merkezî bir coğrafyada yaşamaları ve tarihî süreçte Şamanizm, Totemizm gibi inanç sistemlerini ve Maniheizm, Budizm, Nasturilik ve İslamiyet gibi çeşitli dinleri kabul etmeleri nedeniyle sosyo-kültürel yaşamları açısından Türk boyları arasında ayrı bir yere sahiptir. Bu zengin kültürel yapıyı içinde barındıran halk hekimliği ve bu çerçevedeki uygulamalar, farklı kaynaklardan beslenerek günümüze kadar gelmiştir. Uygur Türkleri arasında şamanların tedavi etme, fala bakma ve büyü yapma gibi çeşitli fonksiyonları vardır. Bu makalede, günümüzde Uygur Türkleri arasında şamanların özellikleri ve sihri-büyüsel işlemler içeren tedavi yöntemleri tanıtılıp değerlendirilecektir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Şaman, halk hekimliği, sihir ve büyü. ABSTRACT The Uyghur Turks, having a rich and deep-rooted culture, has a distinguished place among the Turkish tribes in terms of their socio-cultural life due to their living in a central region and due to their accepting the belief systems such as Shamanism, Totemism and the various religions such as Maniheizm, Buddhism, Nestorianism, Islam, in the historical process. The Uyghur folk medicine and other practices in this context that contain this rich cultural structure in themselves survive until today by being fed by different sources. Among the Uyghur Turks the Shamans have a variety of functions such as treatment, geomancy, and witching. In this paper, the Shamans' peculiarities among the Uyghur Turks in our day and their magical treatments methods will be introduced and evaluated.

A rights-based approach to development has increased in prominence in recent development discourse and practice. The approach is characterised by the empowerment of marginalised people through the realisation of human rights; human rights which have been defined and legally represented in the international instruments of the United Nations system. The inherent participatory nature of a rights-based approach to development therefore brings together the work of non-governmental human rights and development organisations.

While a rights-based approach to development is an emerging field in development studies, this dissertation questions its assumptions by detailing through a case study the efforts of state-led development initiatives to realise rights. It also seeks to understand how nongovernmental actors can partner with the state, especially in authoritarian contexts, to operationalise a rights-based approach to development.

A legal framework and an operational framework are drawn from development literature to assess the rights successes of state-led development initiatives and the opportunities for encouraging a rights-based approach to development in marginalised communities. The case study of the dissertation is the experience of the Uyghur ethnic minority in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of The People‘s Republic of China in the Great Western Development Drive era. The Great Western Development Drive, which is the Chinese government‘s attempt to realise rights and developmental equality in its western regions, offers the prospect of assessing the effects of a state-led development initiative on a marginalised people. In turn the shortfalls of the Great Western Development Drive present the chance to understand how marginalised people can partner with the state to offset state failure to bring developmental equality and realise rights. The work mainly draws upon secondary sources; however, the author‘s experience of education projects in Xinjiang and some original research are also presented.

The dissertation concludes that partnership of the state, through consultative interventions sensitive to international human rights instruments, and the non-governmental sector, by means of a rights-based approach to development, offers a comprehensive and multistakeholder method to poverty alleviation.

Uighurs started playing a significant role on the scene of history in AD 744 when they established their nomadic state with the centre in Mongolia. In 764 the Uighur Kaganate declared Manichaeism as a state religion, but in 840 the state fell and after that many Uighurs became Christians of the Church of the East. They left the region of the rivers Toghla and Selenga and settled in the area of the Modern Chinese Province Gansu and Turfan oasis where they organized their new state Kotcho. It is known that in the 8th-9th c., in Kotcho there was a church of the Church of the East. Christian paintings were discovered there in 1905 by Albert Le Coq. Kotcho played an important role in international contacts on the Great Silk Road, and Christians - Syrians and Uighurs - were a cultural elite there. This "privilege" was recognized by Mongols when they conquered all Asia. From "Tarsa" - "Christians" - as they called Uighurs, Mongols borrowed the script. The famous Markos who became, in 1281, Mar Yawalaha III, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Church of the East, and his compatriot Rabban Bar Sawma who travelled to the West, were Uighurs. Their story also tells us about the great persecutions that the Church suffered after the Khans became Muslims. Converting to Islam of Ghazan (in Iran) and Berke (in the Golden Horde) in the ealy 14th c. was a significant factor in Central Asia. Those Uighurs of the Golden Horde who did not want to convert to "the faith of Arabs" fled to the Russian princes and became, together with Christian Tartars, their "dyaks" (secretaries). While Syrian Christians survived in the mountains of Hakkari and Cyprus, Christian Uighurs entered the Russian Church and scattered all over the country.

Although the relationship between Turkey and China has rarely been a center of interest for international observers the bilateral relations between the two countries have improved significantly in recent years. There are two controversial topics restraining the relationship – the imbalance of trade and the Uyghur issue. Until recently the Turkish governments’ sympathy towards the Turkic Uyghur population of Xinjiang Autonomous Region located in western China has been a matter of concern on China’s side. However since the mid 1990s Turkey has been adopted a more pragmatic regional policy. The focus is now on developing sustainable economic cooperation rather than political issues such as those related to the Uyghur cause.

This article examines the role of Musulman (known today as Uyghurs) knowledge in the writing of local history in late Qing Xinjiang. In the last decade of the Qing Empire, the Qing court ordered officials in Xinjiang to compile local gazetteers for the purpose of teaching local history and geography to primary school students across the province. However, because most historical sources were lost during the uprisings of 1864–1877, many gazetteer compilers in Xinjiang were forced to rely on the expertise of local Musulmans. Qing agents routinely consulted Musulman elders, interviewed survivors of the uprisings, translated Turkic-language texts, and drew upon the knowledge and labor of Musulman treasure hunters and diggers to procure historical artifacts. Information sourced from Musulman experts was often included in local and provincial gazetteers, but only after being manipulated by Qing editors seeking to strengthen the place of Xinjiang in the nascent Qing nation-state.

This thesis addresses China’s security and surveillance practices in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), in the context of the “security” concept of Foucault, with particular focus on security and surveillance practices after Chen Quanguo was appointed as Communist Party Secretary of XUAR in 2016. Besides it presents an overview of the transformation of China’s governing practices. For this purpose, the thesis pays particular attention to the consequences of the state transformation after 1978.

в  статье  анализируется  историографический  обзор  изучения  проблемы происхождения  уйгур,  проживавших  на  территории  Центральной  Азии.  Хронологические рамки  исследования  охватывают  30-е  и  70-е  годы  ХХ  века.  Впервые  автором  на  основе изучения  исторических,  археологических  и  этнографических  данных  приведены  основные результаты  исследования.  Изучение  истории  уйгурского  народа,  основные  направления  и проблематика исторических, археологических и этнографических были переделены со многими исследователями всего мира. Огромный сдвиг сделан в XX веке.

The last two centuries of history in the region have seen many brutal events since the Manchu occupation in the 1760s. Often, uprisings and wars were followed by mass revenge killings, and these massacres were mostly racially motivated. For example, Kuropatkin’s book “Kashgaria”  published in 1882, describes the Manchu general Zuo Zongtang’s re-conquest of “Kashgaria” (East Turkistan) in the 1870s. He tells how after Emir Yaqub Beg was defeated, up to one million people were massacred. 

It is 70 years since the People’s Republic of China re-occupied and re-colonized East Turkistan. In spite of the establishment of the “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” in 1955, in practice Uyghur and ather Turkic muslims demands for cultural and religious freedom, justice and equal civil rights have been labeled as “pan Turkism”, “Pan Islamism” and “Ethnic separatism” and met with ruthless crackdowns. Many of China’s minority people’s laws and regulations written in the Chinese constitution, including “regional autonomy for ethnic minorities,” were never respected nor implemented.

Kashgaria (Bedolet) was established in 1866 and expelled all Manchu Qing army and populations, ruled the region more as an independent state for more than 10 years. In 1884, East Turkistan was fully occupied by Manch China and renamed as “Xinjiang – which means “New Dominion” in Chinese language. There were numerous incidents of resistance and rebellion against Chinese occupation in the 19th and 20th centuries.

In the contemporary history of Islamic world, Uyghur muslims established a short lived Islamic Republic of East Turkistan in Kashgar in 1933. A second East Turkistan Republic was established in Ghulja in 1945. In 1949, all the Uyghur leaders were killed in a plane crash which was ordered by the Soviet KGB. Then the Soviet Union sent their tanks and war planes to assist the occupation of East Turkistan by Chinese Red Army. In 1949, the Peoples Republic of China was established and inherited rule over the colonized countries of East Turkistan, Tibet, Southern Mongolia.

ÖZET Türk kültür tarihinde, erkek kahramanların yanı sıra kadın kahramanların gerek mitolojik anlatmalarda gerekse diğer sözlü kültür ürünlerinde önemli bir yeri olduğu bilinmektedir. Uygur Türklerinin mitolojik anlatmaları başta olmak üzere, destan, efsane ve halk şiirinde de çeşitli kadın kahramanlar yer almaktadır. Bu makalede, Uygur Türklerinin sözlü kültür yaratmalarında yer alan mitolojik, dinî ve tarihî kadın kahramanlarından bazıları tanıtılıp değerlendirilecektir. ABSTRACT In the history of Turkish culture, it is known that both heroes and heroines are important in mythological narratives and other oral culture narratives. The different heroines have found in especially mythological narratives of Uighur Turks, epic, legend and folk poems. In this article, some of mythhological, religious and historical heroines, that have found in oral culture of Uighur Turks, will be introduced and interpreted.