East Turkestan

English thumb|Map including East Turkestan (National Geographic Society National Geographic, 1912) Alternative forms en East Turkistan Eastern Turkestan Pronunciation en /isːt ˌtɜː(ɹ)kɪˈstɑːn/ UK en /isːt ˌtɜɹkɪˈstæn/ /isːt ˈtɜɹkɪˌstæn/ US en LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-East Turkestan.wav Southern England Proper noun East Turkestan thumb|Proposed National flag of East Turkestan en Q840601en Xinjiang, Chinaen geographic region in northwestern c/China ; in modern usage, a synonym of Xinjiang used by the East Turkestan independence movement. en 1876 27 September 1874 J. Scully A Contribution to the Ornithology of Eastern Turkestan Allan Octavian Hume Allan Hume Stray Feathers Stray Feathers: A Journal of Ornithology for India and its Dependencies https://archive.org/details/strayfeathersjou41876hume/ IV Calcutta Calcutta Central Press 1697173 59 https://archive.org/details/strayfeathersjou41876hume/page/59/ It seems to me that I entered the hills, from the Indian side, at Barakau on the 25th of June last; that I reached the ‘top’ on the Depsang plains on the 14th of this month; and that to-day I have emerged on the Central Asian side of the hills into the plains of Eastern Turkestan. on en https://archive.org/details/explorationsint01huntgoog/ 1905 Explorations in Turkestan, with an account of the basin of eastern Persia and Sistan w:Raphael Pumpelly 16 It is the opinion of an important school of archeologists that the earliest products of metallurgy in bronze and iron successively progressed to the western world from the far East — a progress that in each case carried with it a revolution in civilizations. We do not know whether this region saw the birth of the metallurgy of those elemental substances which — beginning with copper and tin and progressing through bronze to iron and steel and the use of coal — marks the birth of civilization and its great revolutions. If it was not the birthplace of this art, and if it was a distributing center, it is a long step nearer to any far eastern source, whether this was China, East Turkestan, India, or Persia. en https://archive.org/details/chinamethodism00bashrich/ 1906 China and Methodism w:James Whitford Bashford 31 The introduction of Mohammedanism occurred during the seventh century. Mohammedanism has its largest following in the northwestern portion of the empire, and it has once or twice threatened the peace of the government in that region, especially in the dependency of East Turkestan. en https://archive.org/details/explorationsint01huntgoog/ 1946 Military Information: Sinkiang Rebellions 1931-1937 9 Within the independent government of the East Turkestan Republic, while Sabid-da-Mulla insisted upon defending the Old City of Kashgar to the death, Mahum and Nias wanted to quit the Old City for the time being, withdraw to Ying-chi-sha, and plan a second uprising. en 1952 Sharasume Leon E. Seltzer The Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World https://archive.org/details/columbialippinco00selt/ Morningside Heights, NY w:Columbia University Press 802473294 1745 https://archive.org/details/columbialippinco00selt/page/1745/ 2 It is the administrative hq. of the dist. Altai [Chinese Aerhtai or Ashan], by which name the town is sometimes called, and which formed part (1944-50) of the East Turkestan Republic. en https://archive.org/details/Bulletin34/ 1962 Geographical Aspects of the Silk Road Especially in Persia and East Turkestan Bertil Almgren 34 w:Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities Stockholm 96 After Lou-lan, however, the Qum darja river and, north of this, the parallel mountain range of Quruq-tagh again seem to offer some guidance, when choosing the northern route through East Turkestan. en 1970 1964 Reinhard G. Hubel The carpets of East Turkestan Katherine Watson The Book of Carpets https://archive.org/details/bookofcarpets00hube/ West Germany w:Praeger Publishers 71-107152 238186 267 https://archive.org/details/bookofcarpets00hube/page/267/ Furthermore for many regions of eastern and southern China it is the mat rather than the carpet that is more suited to the climate as a floor covering. Carpet export from east Turkestan was therefore always directed primarily westwards and to a lesser extent southwards. In old Chinese documents there is scarcely a mention of the carpets of east Turkestan. en https://archive.org/details/muslimsinchina0000holl/ 2006 1-59084-880-2 Muslims in China Sheila Hollihan-Elliot Mason Crest Publishers 55 For most of their history, the Uyghurs lived as tribes in a loosely affiliated nation on the northern Chinese border (sometimes called East Turkestan). Most do not think of themselves as Chinese, and some want to break away from China and form an independent state. They wish to emulate their Turkic Muslim neighbors in Central Asian states like Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, which gained independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. en 2013 https://thediplomat.com/2013/10/china-courts-central-asia/ China Courts Central Asia Steve Finch w:The Diplomat For Anwar Yusuf Turani, a Washington D.C.-based school teacher and prime minister of the exiled government of East Turkistan – the pro-independence name for Xinjiang – all of this is too little too late by Beijing.Evasive about whether pro-independence supporters are present in Central Asia, he says that he communicates regularly with people in Xinjiang, even if it’s difficult with social media mostly blocked. “The Chinese government makes propaganda telling the people of East Turkestan that we should live in harmony, that the vast majority of the Uyghur people want to live with China,” Turani tells The Diplomat. https://web.archive.org/web/20250808205753/https://thediplomat.com/2013/10/china-courts-central-asia/ 8 August 2025 en 2013 https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/12/02/my-dinner-with-alptekin/ My Dinner With Alptekin Isaac Stone Fish w:Foreign Policy I only knew one of the men at the table — a friend of a good friend from China — and after listening to several speeches that I did not understand, and several gulps of whiskey, I went to go talk to him. But he doesn’t speak much English, and I felt communicating with him in Mandarin would be in poor taste. So I smiled at him, and he smiled sadly at me, and pulled out his accordion. "We eat, we talk, we drink — water or tea, not vodka, like me," Alptekin said with an exaggerated wink, as my friend stared into the distance beyond the gym wall and started playing a mournful song on the accordion. "And that’s how we free East Turkestan." https://web.archive.org/web/20250124061828/https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/12/02/my-dinner-with-alptekin/ 24 January 2025 en 2015 http://docs.uyghuramerican.org/pdf/Legitimizing-Repression.pdf Legitimizing Repression: China’s “War on Terror” Under Xi Jinping and State Policy in East Turkestan Washington, D.C. Uyghur Human Rights Project According to data assembled by the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) from Chinese and overseas media, a range of 656 to 715 individuals lost their lives in the violence that engulfed Uyghurs and other ethnicities between 2013-14. The number of fatalities in 2014 is approximately double that of 2013. Although these numbers should not be considered definitive, as the Chinese government tightly controls information in East Turkestan, they are indicative of a deterioration in conditions during the two calendar years of Xi Jinping’s tenure as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and President of the People’s Republic of China. 10 March 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20200914122136/http://docs.uyghuramerican.org/pdf/Legitimizing-Repression.pdf 14 September 2020 en 2019 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/21/how-china-tried-stop-my-freedom-speech-canada/ How China tried to stop my freedom of speech — in Canada Rukiye Turdush w:Washington Post My brother was killed on the streets in 1992. He was only 18. He was attacked by a mob of Chinese construction corps soldiers. He was killed in East Turkestan (also known as the Xinjiang region of western China) because he engaged in a peaceful protest with his friends against the millions of Han Chinese being sent into our homeland to dominate the land of our people, the Uighurs. I later gave his name to my newborn baby boy and decided to leave my country in search of a peaceful life for him in Canada. https://web.archive.org/web/20220815085029/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/21/how-china-tried-stop-my-freedom-speech-canada/ 15 August 2022 en 2019 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/21/world/asia/xinjiang-turkey-china-muslims-fear.html They Built a Homeland Far From China’s Grip. Now They’re Afraid. Carlotta Gall w:New York Times He and his business partner, Nur Ahmet Mahmut, 32, publish anything they can find, from Uighur history and literature to children’s stories and cookery books. They sell symbols of their hoped-for republic, East Turkestan — such as its sky blue flag with white crescent and star — items that are outlawed in China. https://web.archive.org/web/20250901123746/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/21/world/asia/xinjiang-turkey-china-muslims-fear.html 1 September 2025 en 03/08/2021 Ted Deutch Theodore Deutch H.R.1630 - Uyghur Human Rights Protection Act https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1630/text w:Congress.gov Congress makes the following findings:(1) The Government of the People’s Republic of China has a long history of repressing Turkic Muslims and other Muslim minority groups, particularly Uyghurs, in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (“Xinjiang” or “XUAR”), also known as East Turkestan. https://web.archive.org/web/20241212103235/https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1630/text 12 December 2024 en March 07, 2022 Omer Kanat Uyghurs Stand With Ukrainians https://web.archive.org/web/20220307143843/https://thediplomat.com/2022/03/uyghurs-stand-with-ukrainians/ 7 March 2021 w:The Diplomat I know what it means to be dislocated at the hands of an occupying armed force — the terror and pain over the loss of a homeland, the immediate urgency of staying alive, the uncertain future and the fight ahead. My family left my hometown of Ghulja, East Turkestan, in the 1970s, crossing the short border between China and Afghanistan to seek sanctuary in Kabul. Our story of exile is the story of millions of Uyghurs and the hundreds of millions of displaced people across the globe. en October 3, 2025 Lindsay Maizland China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang w:Council on Foreign Relations https://web.archive.org/web/20260113070923/https://www.cfr.org/backgrounders/china-xinjiang-uyghurs-muslims-repression-genocide-human-rights https://www.cfr.org/backgrounders/china-xinjiang-uyghurs-muslims-repression-genocide-human-rights January 13, 2026 Xinjiang has been claimed by China since the CCP took power in 1949. Some Uyghurs living there refer to the region as East Turkestan and argue that it ought to be independent from China. Xinjiang takes up one-sixth of China’s landmass and borders eight countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan.In October 2024, the European Parliament passed an emergency resolution that condemned the persecution of Uyghurs and urged the Chinese government to release detainees. Members of the Amsterdam City Parliament went further in July 2025, passing a motion to use the name “East Turkestan” in place of “Xinjiang.” en Usage notes East Turkestan is the preferred name used by Uyghur independence activists, who reject the name “Xinjiang” due to it being a name given by the Chinese state. The term is correspondingly proscribed in China for its strong correlation with the Uyghur independence movement. Derived terms en East Turkestan Republic Translations a historical region in Asia Arabic: ar تُرْكِسْتَان الشَّرْقِيَّة f Armenian: hy Արևելյան Թուրքեստան Azerbaijani: az Şərqi Türküstan Belarusian: be Усхо́дні Туркеста́н m Bengali: bn পূর্ব তুর্কিস্তান purbô turkistan Bulgarian: bg И́зточен Туркеста́н m Chinese: Mandarin: cmn 東突厥斯坦 Dōng Tūjuésītǎn, cmn 東土耳其斯坦 Dōng Tǔ'ěrqísītǎn Crimean Tatar: crh Şarqiy Türkistan Czech: cs Východní Turkestán m Finnish: fi Itä-Turkestan French: fr Turkestan oriental m Georgian: ka აღმოსავლეთ თურქესტანი German: de Ostturkestan n Greek: el Ανατολικό Τουρκεστάν n Hindi: hi पूर्व तुर्किस्तान m Japanese: ja 東トルキスタン ひがしトルキスタン, Higashi Torukisutan Kazakh: kk Шығыс Түркістан Korean: ko ^동튀르키스탄 Kyrgyz: ky Чыгыш Түркстан Mongolian: Cyrillic: mn Зүүн Туркестан Persian: Iranian Persian: fa-ira تُرْکِسْتانِ شَرْقی Polish: pl Turkiestan Wschodni m Russian: ru Восто́чный Туркеста́н m Slovak: sk Východný Turkestan m Swedish: sv Östturkestan Tajik: tg Туркистони шарқӣ Tatar: tt Көнчыгыш Төркистан Turkish: tr Doğu Türkistan Turkmen: tk Gündogar Türküstan Ukrainian: uk Схі́дний Туркеста́н m Urdu: ur مَشْرِقی تُرْکِسْتان m Uyghur: ug شەرقىي تۈركىستان Uzbek: uz Sharqiy Turkiston Xinjiang See also en Altishahr