East Turkistan Map and Location per ETGE

East Turkestan or East Turkistan (, : , : ), is a loosely-defined geographical region in the northwestern part of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, on the cross roads of

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

and

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

. 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 The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Xinjiang, Northwestern China occupying an area of about and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, Ch ...

in Southern Xinjiang. 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 The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...

to the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

had called an overlapping area the " Western Regions". Starting in the 20th century, the Turkic Muslim Uyghur separatists and their supporters used East Turkestan as an appellation for the whole of Xinjiang (the Tarim Basin and Dzungaria) or for a future independent state in present-day Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. They reject the name Xinjiang (meaning "New Frontier" in Chinese) because of the Chinese perspective reflected in the name, and prefer East Turkestan to emphasize the connection to other, western Turkic groups. The First East Turkestan Republic existed from November 12, 1933, to April 16, 1934, and the Second East Turkestan Republic existed between November 12, 1944, and June 27, 1946. East Turkestan is a founding member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) formed in 1991, where it was represented initially by the East Turkistan National Congress and later by the World Uyghur Congress post 2004. In September 2004, the East Turkistan Government in Exile was established in Washington, D.C.

Etymology

The term "East Turkestan" 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

in southern Xinjiang or Xinjiang as a whole. The term "Uyghuristan" means 'land of Uyghurs'. The latter name was given to the region by medieval Muslim geographers.

History

Pre-20th century

In China, the term Western Regions (; Uyghur: Qurighar, Қуриғар) referred to the regions west of the Yumen Pass. During the 2nd century BC, Chinese writers called the city states of the northern and southern rim of the

Taklamakan Desert The Taklamakan Desert ( ) is a desert in northwest China's Xinjiang region. Located inside the Tarim Basin in Southern Xinjiang, it is bounded by the Kunlun Mountains to the south, the Pamir Mountains to the west, the Tian Shan range to the ...

the "Walled city-states of the Western Regions". In 60 BC, the

established the Protectorate of the Western Regions "in charge of all the oasis-states of the

" which they ruled in indirectly with small agricultural military colonies. The Protector General was stationed at Wulei (west of

Karasahr Karasahr or Karashar (), which was originally known in the Tocharian languages as ''Ārśi'' (or Arshi), Qarašähär, or Agni or the Chinese derivative Yanqi ( zh, s=焉耆, p=Yānqí, w=Yen-ch'i), is an ancient town on the Silk Road and the capi ...

). The city-states were able to conduct their own independent policies with each other. After the Western Han period that ended in 9 AD, China lost its authority over the Western Regions until it was restored in 94 AD and officially lasted until 107 AD. After the crackdown of internal separatist forces, the Eastern Han dynasty set up another protectorate known as the Chief Official of the Western Regions instead. Since the Han, successive Chinese governments had to deal with secessionist movements and local rebellions from different peoples in the region. However, even when Xinjiang was not under Chinese political control, Xinjiang has long had "close contacts with China" that distinguish it from the independent Turkic countries of Central Asia. A Sogdian sale contract of a female slave from the period of the Gaochang kingdom under the rule of Qu clan'' from 639 CE mentioned the Sogdian word "twrkstn", which may have referred to the lands to the east and north of

Syr Darya The Syr Darya ( ),; ; ; ; ; /. historically known as the Jaxartes ( , ), is a river in Central Asia. The name, which is Persian language, Persian, literally means ''Syr Sea'' or ''Syr River''. It originates in the Tian Shan, Tian Shan Mountain ...

in the realm of the First Turkic Khaganate. The Gökturks, known in ancient Chinese with pronunciation as Tutkyud as well as modern Chinese pronunciation as Tujue (Tu-chueh; ), united the Turkic peoples and created a large empire, which broke into various

Khanates A khanate ( ) or khaganate refers to historic polities ruled by a khan, khagan, khatun, or khanum. Khanates were typically nomadic Mongol and Turkic or Tatar societies located on the Eurasian Steppe, and politically equivalent in status to k ...

or Khaganates; the Western Turkic Khaganate inherited Xinjiang, but West Tujue became part of China's

until the ninth century. However, the terms for West Tujue and East Tujue do not have any relation with the terms West and East Turkestan. "Turkestan", which means "region of the Turks", was defined by

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

geographers in the ninth and tenth centuries as the areas northeast of the Sir River. For those Arab writers, the Turks were Turkic-speaking

nomad Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...

s and not the sedentary Persian-speaking

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment With the various migrations and political upheavals following the collapse of the Gökturk confederation and the Mongol invasions, "Turkestan", according to the official Chinese position, gradually ceased to be a useful geographic descriptor and was not used. During the sixteenth century, the Chagatai Khanate completed the Islamification and

Turkification Turkification, Turkization, or Turkicization () describes a shift whereby populations or places receive or adopt Turkic attributes such as culture, language, history, or ethnicity. However, often this term is more narrowly applied to mean specif ...

of western Xinjiang and the surrounding region, known then as

Moghulistan Moghulistan, also called the Moghul Khanate or the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, was a Muslims, Muslim, Mongol, and later Turkic peoples, Turkic breakaway khanate of the Chagatai Khanate and a historical geographic area north of the Tian Shan, Teng ...

, while China's

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

held the Eastern Areas. After the Fall of the Ming dynasty, a western Mongol group established a polity in "Chinese Tartary", as it was sometimes known, or in eastern Xinjiang, expanding southward into southern Xinjiang. In 1755, the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

defeated the Mongol

Dzungar Khanate The Dzungar Khanate ( Mongolian: ), also known as the Zunghar Khanate or Junggar Khanate, was an Inner Asian khanate of Oirat Mongol origin. At its greatest extent, it covered an area from southern Siberia in the north to present-day Kyrgyz ...

and captured two territories in Xinjiang. The northern territory, where the Dzungars lived, was called Dzungaria, while the southern areas, which the Dzungars controlled and mined, were called Huijiang (Hui-chiang; ) or Altishahr. The term "Xinjiang", which, up until that time, simply meant all territories new to the Qing, gradually shifted in meaning for the Qing court to exclusively mean Dzungaria and Altishahr taken together. In 1764, the

Qianlong Emperor The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, personal name Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of China, emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China pr ...

made this use of Xinjiang as a

proper name A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa''; ''Jupiter''; ''Sarah''; ''Walmart'') as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, pl ...

official and issued an imperial order defining Xinjiang as a "provincial administrative area". After General Tso (Tso Ts'ung T'ang) suppressed the Dungan revolt in 1882, Xinjiang was officially reorganized into a province and the name Xinjiang was popularized, superseding "Xiyu" in writing. At the same time as the Chinese consolidation of control in Xinjiang, explorers from the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

and

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

s explored, mapped, and delineated Central Asia in a competition of colonial expansion. Several influential Russians would propose new terms for the territories, as in 1805 when the Russian explorer Timovski revived the use of "Turkestan" to refer to Middle Asia and "East Turkestan" to refer to the

east of Middle Asia in southern Xinjiang or, in 1829, when the Russian

sinologist Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...

Nikita Bichurin proposed the use of "East Turkestan" to replace "Chinese Turkestan" for the Chinese territory east of

Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...

. The Russian Empire mused expansion into Xinjiang, which it informally called "Little Bukhara". Between 1851 and 1881, Russia occupied the Ili valley in Xinjiang and continued to negotiate with the Qing for trading and settlement rights for Russians. Regardless of the new Russian appellations, the original inhabitants of Central Asia generally continued not to use the word "Turkestan" to refer to their own territories. After a spate of annexations in Middle Asia, Russia consolidated its holdings west of the

Pamir Mountains The Pamir Mountains are a Mountain range, range of mountains between Central Asia and South Asia. They are located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun Mountains, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya ...

as the Turkestan Governorate or "Russian Turkestan" in 1867. It is at this time that Western writers began to divide Turkestan into a Russian and a Chinese part. Although foreigners acknowledged that Xinjiang was a Chinese polity, and that there were Chinese names for the region, some travelers preferred to use "names that emphasized Turkic, Islamic, or Central Asian, i.e., non-Chinese characteristics". For contemporary British travelers and English-language material, there was no consensus on a designation for Xinjiang, with " Chinese Turkestan", "East Turkestan", "Chinese Central Asia", " Serindia", and "Sinkiang" being used interchangeably to describe the region of Xinjiang. Until the 20th century, locals used the names of cities or oases in their "territorial self-perception", which expanded or contracted as needed, such as Kashgaria out of Kashgar to refer to southwestern Xinjiang. Altishahr, or "six cities", collectively referred to six vaguely defined cities south of the

Tian Shan The Tian Shan, also known as the Tengri Tagh or Tengir-Too, meaning the "Mountains of God/Heaven", is a large system of mountain ranges in Central Asia. The highest peak is Jengish Chokusu at high and located in Kyrgyzstan. Its lowest point is ...

Early 20th century

In 1912, the

Xinhai Revolution The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC). The revolution was the culmination of a decade ...

overthrew the Qing dynasty and created a

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. As Yuan Dahua, the last Qing governor, fled from Xinjiang, one of his subordinates,

Yang Zengxin Yang Zengxin (; March 6, 1864 – July 7, 1928) was a Chinese warlord who was the ruler of Xinjiang after the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 and during the Warlord Era until his assassination in 1928. Life Yang Zengxin was born in Mengzi, Yun ...

(楊增新), took control of the province and acceded in name to the Republic of China in March of the same year. In 1921, the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

officially defined the

Uyghurs The Uyghurs,. alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central Asia and East Asia. The Uyghurs are recognized as the ti ...

as the sedentary

Turkic peoples Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West Asia, West, Central Asia, Central, East Asia, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members ...

from Chinese Turkestan as part of their nation building policy in Central Asia. Multiple insurgencies arose against Yang's successor Jin Shuren (金树仁) in the early 1930s throughout Xinjiang, usually led by

Hui people The Hui people are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Islam in China, Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the Northwest China, northwestern provinces and in the Zhongy ...

. "East Turkestan" became a rallying cry for people who spoke Turki and believed in

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

to rebel against Chinese authorities. In the Kashgar region on November 12, 1933, Uyghur separatists declared the short-lived and self-proclaimed East Turkestan Republic (ETR), using the term "East Turkestan" to emphasize the state's break from China and new anti-China orientation. Influenced by pan-Islamism and pan-Turkism, these separatists established a constitution which mandated

Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...

law in the short-lived Islamic republic. The First ETR gave political meaning to the erstwhile geographical term of East Turkestan. It was not recognized by any country, however. Chinese

warlord Warlords are individuals who exercise military, Economy, economic, and Politics, political control over a region, often one State collapse, without a strong central or national government, typically through informal control over Militia, local ...

Sheng Shicai (盛世才) quickly defeated the ETR and ruled Xinjiang for the decade after 1934 with close support from the

. Eventually, the Soviet Union exploited the change in power from Sheng to

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

officials to create the puppet Second East Turkestan Republic (1944–1946) in present-day

Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture in northern Xinjiang, China. Its capital is Yining, also known as Ghulja or Kulja. Covering an area of 268,591 square kilometres (16.18 per cent of Xinjiang), Ili Prefecture shares ...

to exploit its minerals, later justifying it as a national liberation movement against the "reactionary" Kuomintang regime. Amid the anti-Han programs and policies and exclusion of "

pagan Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...

s", or non-Muslims, from the separatist government, Kuomintang leaders based in Dihua (Ürümqi) appealed to the long Chinese history in the region to justify its sovereignty over Xinjiang. In response, Soviet historians produced revisionist histories to help the ETR justify its own claims to sovereignty, with statements such as that the Uyghurs were the "most ancient Turkic people" that had contributed to world civilization. In June 1946, the Soviet Union withdrew its support for the ETR. Traditionally, scholars had thought of Xinjiang as a "cultural backwater" compared to the other Central Asian states during the

Islamic Golden Age The Islamic Golden Age was a period of scientific, economic, and cultural flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign o ...

. Local British and US

consuls A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...

, also intrigued by the separatist government, published their own histories of the region. The Soviet Uyghur histories produced during its support of the ETR remain the basis of Uyghur nationalist publications today.

Late 20th century

Seidenstrasse_GMT_Ausschnitt_Zentralasien

At the end of the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...

in 1949, with Xinjiang divided between Kuomintang forces and ETR secessionists, the Communist leadership persuaded both governments to surrender and accept the succession of the People's Republic of China government and negotiated the establishment of Communist provincial governments in Yining (Ghulja) and Dihua. On October 1, 1955,

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

Chairman

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

designated Xinjiang a "Uyghur Autonomous Region", creating a regionwide Uyghur identity which overtook Uyghurs' traditionally local and

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment Sino-Soviet split The Sino-Soviet split was the gradual worsening of relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during the Cold War. This was primarily caused by divergences that arose from their ...

in the 1960s, it revived its Uyghur studies program as part of an "ideological war" against China. The term "East Turkestan" was popularized in academic works, but inconsistently: at times, the term East Turkestan only referred to as the area in Xinjiang south of the

mountains, corresponding to the

; the areas north of the Tian Shan mountains were called Dzungaria or Zungaria. Tursun Rakhimov, a Uyghur historian for the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

during the Sino-Soviet split, argued in his 1981 book "Fate of the Non-Han Peoples of the PRC" that "both" East Turkestan and Dzungaria were conquered by China and "renamed" Xinjiang. Occasionally, he used East Turkestan and Xinjiang interchangeably. Concurrently, during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

and the Revolution's campaigns against "local nationalism", the government had come to associate the term East Turkestan with Uyghur separatism and "" and forbade its usage. Uyghur nationalist historian Turghun Almas and his book Uyghurlar (The Uyghurs) and Uyghur nationalist accounts of history were galvanized by Soviet stances on history, "firmly grounded" in Soviet Turcological works, and both heavily influenced and partially created by Soviet historians and Soviet works on Turkic peoples. Soviet historiography spawned the rendering of Uyghur history found in Uyghurlar. Almas claimed that Central Asia was "the motherland of the Uyghurs" and also the "ancient golden cradle of world culture". The global trends set by the

Dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

in the 1990s and the rise of global

Islamism Islamism is a range of religious and political ideological movements that believe that Islam should influence political systems. Its proponents believe Islam is innately political, and that Islam as a political system is superior to communism ...

and pan-Turkism revived separatist sentiments in Xinjiang and led to a wave of political violence that killed 162 people between 1990 and 2001.

21st century

In 2001, the government of China lifted its ban on state media's using the terms "Uyghurstan" or "East Turkestan", as part of a general opening up after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

to the world about political violence in Xinjiang and a plea for international help to suppress East Turkestan terrorists. In 2004, the East Turkistan Government in Exile was established in Washington, D.C. under the leadership of Anwar Yusuf Turani to strive for East Turkistan's independence. To justify the PRC's claim to East Turkestan, a white paper was published in 2019 which made a statement that 'East Turkestan' never existed and it was only called 'Xinjiang' and been part of China since early history. East Turkestan was historically not treated as an inseparable part of China, but rather colonized by Han Chinese who had little in common with the Uyghur population. On February 28, 2017, it was announced by the Qira County government in Hotan Prefecture that those who reported others for stitching the ' star and crescent moon' insignia on their clothing or personal items or having the words 'East Turkestan' on their mobile phone case, purse, or other jewelry, would be eligible for cash payments.

Current status

As the history of Xinjiang in particular is contested between the

government of China The government of the People's Republic of China is based on a system of people's congress within the parameters of a unitary communist state, in which the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) enacts its policies through people's congresses. ...

and Uyghur separatists, the official and common name of

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

(with its Uyghur

loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...

counterpart, ''Shinjang'') is rejected by those seeking independence. "East Turkestan", a term of Russian origin, asserts a continuity with a "West Turkestan" or the now-independent states of Soviet Central Asia. Not all of those states accept the designation of "Turkestan", however. For instance,

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

's Persian-speaking population feels more closely aligned with

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. For separatists, East Turkestan is coterminous with

or the independent state that they would like to lead in Xinjiang. Proponents of the term "East Turkestan" argue that the name Xinjiang is arrogant, because if the individual Chinese characters are to be taken literally and not as a

, then Xinjiang means "New Territory". Some Chinese scholars have advocated a name change for the region or a reversion to the older term Xiyu ("Western Regions"), arguing that "Xinjiang" might mislead people into thinking that Xinjiang is "new" to China. Other scholars defend the name, noting that Xinjiang was new to the late

, which gave Xinjiang its current name. Uyghurprotest DC 2

In modern separatist usage, "Uyghuristan", which means "land of the Uyghurs", is a synonym for Xinjiang or a potential state in Xinjiang, like "East Turkestan". There is no consensus among separatists about whether to use "East Turkestan" or "Uyghurstan". "East Turkestan" has the advantage of also being the name of two historic political entities in the region, while Uyghurstan appeals to modern ideas of ethnic

self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...

. East Turkistan was also used in the context of Yaqub Beg's Kashgaria in the mid-1800s. Uyghurstan is also a difference in emphasis in that it excludes more peoples in Xinjiang than just the Han, but the "East Turkestan" movement is still a Uyghur phenomenon.

Kazakhs The Kazakhs (Kazakh language, Kazakh: , , , ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia and Eastern Europe. They share a common Culture of Kazakhstan, culture, Kazakh language, language and History of Kazakhstan, history ...

and Hui Muslims are largely alienated from the movement, as are Uyghurs who live closer to the eastern provinces of China. Separatist sentiment is strongest among the Uyghur

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of birth, place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently resi ...

, who practice what has been called "cyber-separatism", encouraging the use of "East Turkestan" on their websites and literature. Historically, "Uyghurstan" referred to the northeastern oasis region of " Kumul- Turfan". "Chinese Turkestan", while synonymous with East Turkestan in historical terms, is not used today, rejected by Uyghur separatists for the "Chinese" part of the name and by China for the "Turkestan" part. In China, the terms "East Turkestan", "Uyghurstan", and even "Turkestan" alone connote old Western imperialism and the past East Turkestan republics and modern militant groups, such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). The government of China conflates the violence of differing separatist groups, such as the ETIM and the East Turkestan Liberation Organization, as coming simply from "East Turkestan forces". Chinese

diplomatic mission A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually denotes ...

s have objected to foreigners' use of "East Turkestan". They argue that the term is political and no longer geographical or historical and that its use represents "a provocation" to the sovereignty of China. The historical definitions for "East Turkestan" are multifarious and ambiguous, reflecting that, outside of Chinese administration, the area now called "Xinjiang" was not geographically or demographically a single region. The territorial definition, as claimed by the East Turkistan Government in Exile and International Support for Uyghurs, includes the bulk of Xinjiang (excluding the disputed territory of

Aksai Chin Aksai Chin is a region administered by China partly in Hotan County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang, and partly in Rutog County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet, and constituting the easternmost portion of the larger Kashmir regio ...

), as well as parts of western

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

(including

Subei Mongol Autonomous County The Subei Mongol Autonomous County ( zh, s=肃北蒙古族自治县; ) is an autonomous county within the prefecture-level city of Jiuquan in the northwest of Gansu Province, China, bordering Xinjiang to the west, Qinghai Province to the south ...

, Aksay Kazakh Autonomous County,

Dunhuang Dunhuang () is a county-level city in northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Sachu (Dunhuang) was ...

city, and Guazhou County) and

Qinghai Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...

( Lenghu and

Mangnai Mangnai, also known as Mang'ai, is a county-level city in the northwest of Qinghai Province, China, bordering Xinjiang to the north and west. It is under the administration of Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. It is one of the most ...

). The World Uyghur Congress considers East Turkestan to be the area of Xinjiang along with territory claimed to be annexed by a "neighboring Chinese province" in 1949.