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Executive Summary
Beginning in 1949, China considered, and dealt with, so-called Uyghur separatism and the quest for Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang) independence as a domestic problem. Since the early 1990s, however, Beijing has begun to recognize the international aspects of this problem and to deal with its external manifestations. This new policy has affected China's relations with Turkey, which has ideologically inspired Uyghur nationalism, offered sanctuary to Uyghur refugees, and provided moral and material support to Eastern Turkestan movements, organizations, and activities.
The origins of this support go back to the late nineteenth century, when the Chinese and the Ottoman empires-previously isolated-briefly competed (in a virtual rather than a real way) for sovereignty and control over southwestern Xinjiang. By that time both empires had already declined, and their final collapse in 1911 and 1922 further reduced the potential for friction. Although Turkey demonstrated sympathy and encouragement from afar when Uyghur nationalism began to emerge in the 1930s, Istanbul remained a bystander and could not, and would not, provide any real support. By the late 1940s Beijing and Ankara had grown further apart, with China becoming part of the Soviet bloc while Turkey joined the Western alliance. Shortly afterward the two clashed in the Korean War, which would damage their relationship for many years, and perhaps to this day.
Even before, and especially since, the early 1950s, Turkey has hosted Uyghur leaders and refugees from the People's Republic of China, who have set up associations and organizations aimed at the preserva- tion of their culture while at the same time never losing sight of their goal of Eastern Turkestan independence. By using Turkey, which favored these activities, as their headquarters, Uyghur leaders sought to promote the Eastern Turkestan cause, yet they have had little success. The absence of Sino-Turkish diplomatic relations, China's international isolation, the Western disregard of human rights, and the technological limits of the media have all thwarted these efforts. This situation might have changed in 1971, when Sino-Turkish diplomatic relations were at long last established, but it did not. For about twenty years, until the early to mid-1990s, these relations remained marginal for both. China still considered its Uyghur problem a domestic affair, and Eastern Turkestan activities in Turkey continued. Both of these situations,...