Abstract:

Focusing on Türkiye's recently declassified diplomatic archival records for the years 1933-1950, this works explores how that nation-state positioned itself geopolitically and otherwise toward Xinjiang region ''Turkic Islamic Republic of East Turkistan (TIRET)” and ''the Second East Turkestan Republic (SETR)”. During this period, China was at its weakest—struggling to protect its borders, and having lost a significant part of its territory to the Empire of Japan. This was also a time when Türkiye was trying to establish itself as a secular republic on the ashes of the Islam-based Ottoman Empire. Türkiye’s endeavor to establish itself as a secular republic involved a concerted effort by the Kemalist state to revolutionize the country at every level.

The diplomatic records studied here indicate that, culturally, Türkiye wanted to spread the new Turkish alphabet consisting of Latin letters and to collect works written in Turkish from the Xinjiang area; geopolitically, it wanted to establish and sustain respectable relations with the Republic of China without disturbing its relations with the USSR. While trying to carry out its social and cultural activities in the region in coordination with the Chinese authorities, Türkiye attempted to maintain its distance from Xinjiang's separatist movements, which it viewed to be radically religious. Türkiye also considered these movements to be a tool that other countries had been using to manipulate it as well as China--including in regard to one another.