The Islamic world's East Turkestan question

The 1st International East Turkestan Symposium, held in Istanbul and lasting three days, concluded with a published final declaration. Organized by the East Turkestan Union of Scholars with the support and participation of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, the symposium was attended by scholars, intellectuals, politicians and academics from 40 countries, who presented papers or contributed with their views.

At the symposium, very clear examples of what has been experienced in East Turkestan since 1949, of the Chinese government's assimilation policies and human rights violations against Muslim Turks, were presented through direct testimonies. People from 40 countries discussed concrete remedies for what can be done to end what is happening in East Turkestan.

The Islamic scholars who organized the symposium stated in clear terms that what is happening in East Turkestan is of course first of all a human problem, but that before expecting anything from all of humanity, all Muslims must see this issue as a matter of priority, and that they themselves see it so. That the Islamic ummah is like one body, and that when pain touches one organ of this body it is a part of faith that it be felt in exactly the same way in all the cells of the body, was repeatedly stated on every occasion.

The Islamic scholars stated that what is happening in East Turkestan is felt, and must be felt, in all individuals of the Islamic nation as their own pain. At this point it was a response, given spontaneously and without even addressing it, to a nonsensical claim that we unfortunately hear from time to time in Türkiye:

That those who care about the Palestinian cause should also care about the Muslims' East Turkestan issue, the Kashmir issue, the Myanmar issue, the Nagorno-Karabakh issue (which, thank God, has been resolved), and the Kurdish issue (although the forms it takes today and where those who appear to champion it are taking it are, as a problem in itself, very different), and that they should embrace them as their own issues, is not surprising. All these issues are the issues of all Muslims, and the sharing of these pains is, on the contrary, experienced as a sign of vitality of the Muslim ummah.

Many important figures attended the symposium over the three days. Of course, one of the most important was the President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, Dr. Ali al-Qaradaghi. Although he is a Kurd, the language in which he spoke was Arabic, and the cause he embraced with great fervor was the East Turkestan cause. As he did so, the intensity of the emotion he felt made his voice tremble, and as he described the suffering being endured he almost wept. This image of brotherhood in itself showed well enough where the greatest strength of the Muslim ummah lies.

The closing session of what is probably the most effective and widest-attended meeting held so far at this level on the reality of East Turkestan was titled "A Strategic Look at the Future of the East Turkestan Cause." The other speakers of the session, in which I personally took part both as moderator and by presenting a paper, were Egyptian Prof. Essam Abdulshafi of the Istanbul Center for International Relations, Prof. Seyfeddin Abdulfettah, and the Governor of Istanbul, Mr. Ali Yerlikaya.

Governor Yerlikaya explained with figures that the migrations from East Turkestan, which began in the 1950s, have formed a significant community in Türkiye, and that the members of this community have today reached a significant number. Explaining that this community is one of the important examples of Türkiye's being, from the beginning, a refuge for the oppressed, Yerlikaya stated, with figures from examples of citizenship or permanent residence services granted, that among these migrations special importance was given in particular to the Ahiska, Azerbaijani, Balkan and Bulgarian Turks, and that they were never treated as foreign migrants.

Meanwhile, although the participants of the East Turkestan Symposium, who attended for three days without any decline in their interest, were from 40 countries, the majority were from the Arab world, and the language of the symposium was Arabic.

This intense interest from the Arab world in the East Turkestan cause is in fact one of the greatest factors in the internationalization of this cause. On the one hand it shows how much the cause has been adopted as a matter of the ummah, and on the other, the holding of the symposium in Arabic ensures that the primary addressees of the messages emerging from here are Arab countries.

I had also stated this in my previous article. However powerful China may be today, its need for and dependence on the Arab world is far greater than the Arab world's dependence on it. China, which wants to open up, which needs markets for its products and raw materials for its production, cannot afford to lose the Islamic world. However, if Islamic countries never even bring up the East Turkestan issue as a topic, if they demand nothing, they cannot expect China to take a step on this matter. The Islamic world must above all realize its own strength. In the last session, the Egyptian academic Prof. Essam Abdulshafi demonstrated with an effective analysis that the sensitivities and alliances that the Turkic world, the Muslim world and Africa can gradually bring forth on this matter will determine the strategic future of the issue.

Moreover, China, too, needs this dialogue. As is well known, China complains greatly that the East Turkestan issue is being used against it with black propaganda by the US and the West. Yet, far beyond black propaganda, there is information based on direct testimonies about what is happening there, and if it does not want this issue to be used by the US and the West, opening itself to negotiation with the Muslim world will be to its own benefit as well.

The initiative taken in this way by the Union of Muslim Scholars is also worth dwelling on. They show very well that Islamic scholars have begun to play their historical roles properly, and that it is possible to give states the necessary advice, advice that will revive them, without making a clamor.

It would of course be to their own benefit especially for the rulers of Islamic countries to heed these voices.