development plan or wealth. This economic project is completely a Chinese project. Apart from the residents of cities where Han ethnic groups are located, the residents of the country have had no share in the income. Now, let us ask a second question: If those who dominate the cities are the Han people who have immigrated into these lands, where are the real owners of these lands, the Uyghur people?

The geography of Eastern Turkistan consists of a vast area (1.6 million m²). It is covered by the Taklamakan Desert and chains of mountains. The population can only reside in the valleys and foothills of the mountains, near sources of water. These places make up 4.5% of the country’s territory.28 According to Hong Kong, and the director of The French Centre for Research on Contemporary China Jean-Francoise Huchet: “The Uyghur people are trapped in a rural area. Contrary to what the other part of the nation obtains from the petrochemical factories and corporations, they have to employ themselves in agricultural, which provides them with no financial or spiritual income.”29 In this context, when we look at the indicators, the difference between the city residents and peasants has increased by threefold. On the other hand, the Christian Science Monitor presented the following in a study that was carried out on the country in 2008: “Thanks to government aid, most of the factories and corporations belong to the Han nation. And these establishments do not accept any work force other than those of the same ethnic origins. Therefore, the Uyghur people are forced to work in degrading jobs, such as servants.”30

Thus, statements by the prime minister of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan, broadcasted by the television channel NTV and transmitted by Reuters News Agency in 10.7.2009 is by no mean exaggeration or political maneuver: “The events that are happening in China are nothing less than mass murder,” and “it is not possible to describe this event in any other way”. The World Uyghur Congress spokesman Dilshat Rashit did not exaggerate when he made the following comment from exile in Sweden: “the misery of the Uyghur people who are tired of suffering in silence is increasing day by day.”31

4) Turkistan after events of September 11

Turkistan houses not only houses some of China’s strategic defense systems, like ballistic missiles; it is also the nuclear testing ground of China. This situation offers an explanation as to why China wants to keep these lands under its rule. To say that China wishes to form a buffer zone, protecting itself from a terrorist attack or Russian influence, which may come from the West, is only a partial interpretation of Chinese policies. China is feverishly trying to make use of the events of September 11. Therefore, it is making political gains to ensure security, even if this means destroying the Uyghur people in the process. On the contrary, what kind of relationship can such events have with the invasion of another country, its renaming, and the seizure of its natural resources, as well as trying