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East Turkestan or East Turkistan, also called Uyghuristan, is a loosely-defined geographical region in the northwestern part of the People's Republic of China, on the cross roads of East and Central Asia. The term was coined in the 19th century by Russian Turkologists, including Nikita Bichurin, who intended the name to replace the common Western term for the region, "Chinese Turkestan", which referred to the Tarim Basin in Southern Xinjiang or Xinjiang as a whole during the Qing dynasty. Beginning in the 17th century, Altishahr, which means "Six Cities" in Uyghur, became the Uyghur name for the Tarim Basin. Uyghurs also called the Tarim Basin "Yettishar," which means "Seven Cities," and even "Sekkizshahr", which means "Eight Cities" in Uyghur. Chinese dynasties from the Han dynasty to the Tang dynasty had called an overlapping area the "Western Regions".
The Turkic Islamic Republic of East Turkestan (TIRET) was an independent republic centered on the city of Kashgar, located in the far west of Xinjiang Province. It is often described as the First East Turkestan Republic to differentiate it from the Second East Turkestan Republic (1944–1946).
The East Turkestan Republic (ETR) was a satellite state of the Soviet Union in northern Xinjiang that existed from 1944 to 1946. It is often described as the Second East Turkestan Republic to differentiate it from the First East Turkestan Republic (1933–1934), but "second" was never a part of its official name.
Muhammad Amin Bughra, sometimes known by his Han name Mao Deming and his Turkish name Mehmet Emin Buğra (1901–1965), was a Uyghur Muslim leader who planned to set up a sovereign state, the First East Turkestan Republic. Muhammad Amin Bughra was a Jadidist.
Isa Yusuf Alptekin was a Uyghur politician who served in the Chinese Nationalist government and opposed both the First East Turkistan Republic and the Second East Turkestan Republic. When Xinjiang came under Chinese communist control in 1949, Alptekin went into exile and became an ultra-nationalist and pan-Turkic separatist.
Sabit Damolla was an East Turkestan independence movement leader who led the Hotan rebellion against the Xinjiang Province government of Jin Shuren and later the Uyghur leader Khoja Niyaz. He is widely known as the first and only prime minister of the short-lived Turkic Islamic Republic of East Turkestan from November 12, 1933, until the republic's defeat in May 1934.
The New 36th Division was a cavalry division in the National Revolutionary Army. It was created in 1932 by the Kuomintang for General Ma Zhongying, who was also its first commander. It was made almost entirely out of Hui Muslim troops, all of its officers were Hui, with a few thousand Uighurs forced conscripts in the rank and file. It was commonly referred to as the "KMT 36th Division", or "Tungan 36th Division".
Ma Shaowu was a Chinese warlord and military commander who was a member of the Xinjiang clique during China's Warlord Era and the Xinjiang Wars.
Abdullah Bughra was a Uighur Emir of the First East Turkestan Republic. He was the younger brother of Muhammad Amin Bughra and older brother of Emir Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra. He commanded Uighur and Kirghiz forces during the Battle of Kashgar (1934) against the Chinese Muslim 36th Division. The Chinese Muslims were loyal to the Chinese government and wanted to crush the Turkic Muslim Uighurs and Kirghiz in revenge for the Kizil massacre. He also had Afghan bodyguards protecting him. He was killed in 1934 at Yarkand by Chinese Muslim troops under general Ma Zhancang. All of Abdullah's fighters were killed, but his body was never found, which later gave rise to speculations about his fate.
Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra was an Uighur Emir of the First East Turkestan Republic. He was the younger brother of Muhammad Amin Bughra and Abdullah Bughra. He commanded Uighur and Kirghiz forces during the Battle of Kashgar (1934) against the Chinese Muslim 36th Division. The Chinese Muslims were loyal to the Republic of China government and wanted to crush the Turkic Muslim Uighurs and Kirghiz in revenge for the Kizil massacre, in which Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra had taken part. He was killed on April 16, 1934, at Yangi Hissar by Chinese Muslim troops under generals Ma Zhancang and Ma Fuyuan. All of Nur Ahmad Jan's 2,500 Uighur and Kirghiz fighters were exterminated by the 10,000 strong Chinese Muslim army.
Timur Beg, also known as Timur Sijan, was a Uighur rebel military leader in Xinjiang in 1933. He was involved in the 1933 Battle of Kashgar and participated before in Turpan Rebellion (1932). He associated with the Turkic nationalist Young Kashgar Party and appointed himself as "Timur Shah". He and other Uighurs like the Bughra brothers wanted to secede from China. In August 1933 his troops were attacked by the Chinese Muslim 36th Division of the National Revolutionary Army under General Ma Zhancang. Timur was shot and killed in Kashgar.
Ma Zhancang (Mazuha)(simplified Chinese: 马占仓; traditional Chinese: 馬占倉; pinyin: Mǎ Zhàncāng; Wade–Giles: Ma Chan-ts'ang, Xiao'erjing: ﻣَﺎ جً ﺿْﺎ) was a Hui Chinese Muslim general of the New 36th Division, who served under Generals Ma Zhongying and Ma Hushan. At the Battle of Kashgar (1933), he repulsed an attack of Uighurs led by the Syrian Arab Tawfiq Bay, wounding Tawfiq. He fought against Kirghiz, and Uighur rebels and destroyed the First East Turkestan Republic after defeating Uighur and Kirghiz fighters at Kashgar, the Battle of Yarkand and the Battle of Yangi Hissar in 1934. He killed the Uighur leaders Timur Beg, Abdullah Bughra and Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra.
The Battle of Kashgar was a military confrontation that took place in 1934 during the Xinjiang Wars. Turkic Muslim Uyghur and Kirghiz fighters under Emir Abdullah Bughra and other Turkic separatists began four separate attacks over a six-day period on Hui and Han Chinese soldiers led by Gen. Ma Zhancang, trapping them inside Kashgar. Khoja Niyas Hajji joined the attack with his own Kumul Uyghur fighters after a 300-mile trek from Aksu – from which he was driven out by a force of Chinese Muslims — appearing at the walls of Kashgar on 13 January. The Chinese Muslim and Chinese forces repulsed the Turkic fighters, inflicting severe casualties upon them.
In the 1933 Battle of Kashgar, Gen. Ma Zhancang signed a secret agreement with the daotai of Kashgar, Ma Shaowu, and his Chinese Muslim troops joined the Han Chinese garrison inside the yamen in Kashgar and helped them repulse Uighur and Kirghiz attacks led by Abdullah Bughra. Turkic Uighur and Kirghiz forces led by the Uighur Timur Beg had been attacking Chinese Muslim villages and pillaging them. During the fighting Timur Beg was shot and then beheaded by Ma Zhancang's forces, his head being put on display at the Idgah mosque. When more Chinese Muslim troops arrived, they reinforced the Chinese garrison inside Kashgar. Osman Ali, the Kirghiz rebel, attempted to attack the yamen, but was driven back with heavy losses. He then proceeded to loot the city.
Ma Fuyuan was a Chinese Muslim general of the New 36th Division, who served under Generals Ma Zhongying and Ma Hushan. He was present with Ma Zhongying, Ma Shih-ming, Ma Shih-lu, and Ma Ho-ying during a meeting with Yulbars Khan. He fought against Uighur and Kirghiz rebels of the First East Turkestan Republic and against the pro-Soviet Uighur Khoja Niyaz at Aksu, driving Khoja Niyaz to Kashgar. He and General Ma Zhancang destroyed the First East Turkestan Republic after defeating Uighur and Kirghiz fighters at the Battle of Kashgar (1934), Battle of Yarkand, and Battle of Yangi Hissar Several British citizens at the British consulate were killed by the new 36th division. After entering Kashgar, Ma publicly proclaimed his allegiance to the Republic of China government in Nanjing and announced that Ma Shaowu was reappointed as the Taoyin of Kashgar.
The Committee for National Revolution was a Turkic Nationalist Uighur party which existed in 1932–1934. It helped found the First East Turkestan Republic. It was anti-Chinese, anti-Chinese Muslim, and anti-Communist. The leader of Karakash gold miners Ismail Khan Khoja, the Khotan Emir Muhammad Amin Bughra, his brothers Abdullah Bughra, Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra, and Sabit Damulla Abdulbaki joined the committee. It had originally 300 members and 50 rifles. On February 20, 1933, it set up a provisional Khotan government with Sabit as prime minister and Muhammad Amin Bughra as head of the armed forces. It favored the establishment of an Islamic theocracy.
Tawfiq Bay, or Sayyid Ahmad Tawfiq Bay Sharif Efendi, was a Syrian Arab traveler who had been in the service of King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, eventually traveling to Xinjiang, Republic of China, in 1932. He was deported by the Chinese Muslim Daotai Ma Shaowu. On August 26 he arrived at Kashgar oases. He joined the Uighur and Kirghiz Turkic Muslim fighters of the First East Turkestan Republic, who were fighting against the Chinese Muslim forces of the 36th Division, who were loyal to the Republic of China government. Tawfiq was a Pan Islamist.
The Kumul Rebellion was a rebellion of Kumulik Uyghurs from 1931 to 1934 who conspired with Hui Chinese Muslim General Ma Zhongying to overthrow Jin Shuren, governor of Xinjiang. The Kumul Uyghurs were loyalists of the Kumul Khanate and wanted to restore the heir to the Khanate and overthrow Jin. The Kuomintang wanted Jin removed because of his ties to the Soviet Union, so it approved of the operation while pretending to acknowledge Jin as governor. The rebellion then catapulted into large-scale fighting as Khotanlik Uyghur rebels in southern Xinjiang started a separate rebellion for independence in collusion with Kirghiz rebels. The various groups of rebels were not united. The main part of the war was waged by Ma Zhongying against the Xinjiang government. He was supported by Chiang Kai-shek, the Premier of China, who secretly agreed to let Ma seize Xinjiang.
A number of flags have been used to represent the cultural and geographical region of East Turkestan in Central Asia, particularly by states that broke away from China during rebellions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nearly all the flags feature a star and crescent, a symbol of the region's Turkic and Islamic identity.
The history of the Uyghur people extends over more than two millennia and can be divided into four distinct phases: Pre-Imperial, Imperial, Idiqut, and Mongol, with perhaps a fifth modern phase running from the death of the Silk Road in AD 1600 until the present.
References
- ↑ Andrew D. W. Forbes (1986). Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: a political history of Republican Sinkiang 1911-1949. Cambridge, England: CUP Archive. p. 82. ISBN 0-521-25514-7 . Retrieved 2010-06-28.
- ↑ Kenneth Bourne, Ann Trotter (1996). British documents on foreign affairs: reports and papers from the Foreign Office confidential print. From the First to the Second World War. Asia 1914-1939. China, May 1933-March 1934, Part 2, Volume 42. University Publications of America. p. 97. ISBN 0-89093-613-7 . Retrieved 2010-06-28.