The Last Genocide of the Modern Age: East Turkestan

Abstract

In this study, with the criteria determined by international documents, It has been examined whether the Chinese government's policies towards the Uyghur Turks are genocide or not. Uyghur Turks living in this region are faced with many rights violations today as in the past. The activities carried out by China against the Uyghur Turks living in this region have now exceeded the dimension of atrocities and reached the level of systematic genocide. Therefore, the basic hypothesis of this study is that the persecution of the Uighur Turks has reached the level of genocide. In the study, the year 1949, China occupied East Turkestan, was taken as a starting point and tried to be examined until today. However, this has been a long time, and therefore the most important and current events have been tried to be included throughout the study. Current events reaching the level of genocide are included. The hypothesis was confirmed based on the definition of genocide defined by the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the analysis of Gregory Stanton's Eight Stages of Genocide. The goal is to contribute to the work to be done about the Uyghurs living in East Turkestan and to announce the crime of genocide in the region. Genocide is an international crime that must be stopped. Announcing this crime to large masses is very important in terms of drawing attention to the ongoing violations of rights and the crime of genocide committed in the region. The accuracy of the basic claim in the study was tried to be verified by the descriptive data analysis method based on the literature review (based on the use of secondary sources). When the data collected as a result of the study is examined, the policies implemented by China in East Turkestan are similar to those of Nazi Germany on the Jews. Therefore, it shows many similarities with the genocide suffered by the Jews and other genocides that took place in the past. The concentration camps, which were created for the so-called "re-education" purpose, are clearly a policy of marginalization and assimilation. People are subject to class discrimination for religious, racial, or ethnic reasons. In order to control the East Turkestan region and to control the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities more easily, activities aimed at reducing the population were implemented in the first place, and planned and systematic studies were carried out to isolate people from their past history and culture in order to assimilate. It has been clearly observed that all these activities mainly aim at consuming the population. Thanks to practices such as education camps, compulsory marriage, and birth policies, a group's generation is trying to be destroyed step by step. The truth is that this persecution, whose origins are very old, has now turned into a genocide. This genocide, which still continues even today, has come to the fore even though it is late. The violations of rights in the region have begun to be described as genocide by the states. In addition, as a result of the researches, the main hypothesis of the study was confirmed in the direction of the data obtained after the activities carried out by China towards the Uyghur Turks were examined. It has been explained with the most recent data that the persecution of the Uyghur Turks is genocide. Population consumer activities in the East Turkestan region of China still continue actively. The topic is current and varied. Therefore, the data on the study is constantly updated, so it is recommended to carry out more studies on the subject.