Transcript for:
چالش‌ها و آرزوهای اویغورها

foreign although people have identified with the territories on which they live for thousands of years it has only been during the last two centuries that the world has been divided into nation states with distinct and reinforced borders the establishment of national borders worldwide has left numerous peoples stateless and divided one such example are the uyghurs a turkic Muslim people who have long practiced agriculture animal husbandry and trading in the oases of Central Asia over the last 100 years a number of borders in the region have separated the weigor people and left them stateless first they were situated in the frontier between Russian and Chinese spheres of influence later the same boundary divided them between Soviet and Chinese States presently they live in several of the new nation states of the former USSR as well as in the People's Republic of China of the roughly 8 million uyghurs in the world today 300 000 live in the former Soviet Union two-thirds of whom are in Kazakhstan the majority over seven and a half million live in China's Northwestern Borderlands when colonizing this area in the 18th century the Chinese named it xinjiang or the new Dominion reject this name calling the region wigorstan or Eastern turkistan titles that evoke the ancient wigor empire that once ruled there and emphasized the area's turkic cultural heritage it is the hope of the weigor diaspora that this area will one day be home to an internationally recognized wigor nation-state it is this dream that unites the divided uigor nation the hope of replacing the borders that separate them as a people with their own borders that will Define their place in the world thank you despite the establishment of a formal border between Russian and Chinese domains in Central Asia during the 19th century wigor is living close to the Border have migrated back and forth many times in the 1880s many were allowed to leave China for russian-ruled Kazakhstan then in the 1920s and 30s wegors fled the Soviet Union for Chinese control xinjiang the largest cross-border migration in this Century took place between 1953 and 1963 when tens of thousands of uyghurs fled to Soviet Kazakhstan to escape the economic and political turmoil that followed the Chinese Revolution in the midst of this Mass migration diplomatic relations between China and the Soviet Union worsened and Border clashes between the two states led to an increased fear of War as a result the sino-soviet Border was closed in 1963 and cross-border contact between wegor's ceased for over two decades this video is about the experiences of three wigors who came to Kazakhstan from China's xinjiang province in the 1950s and 60s till valdi corbanov imar Beck maximoff and Delia pyroos hajia gievna these three wigors settled in kazakhstan's capital city of Alma tea which is only 200 kilometers from the Chinese border however they were cut off from their relatives and culture in xinjiang and forced to adapt to a Soviet social system and a Soviet weigor culture although they have lived in the People's Republic of China the Soviet Union and now the Republic of Kazakhstan these three wigors Define themselves primarily in relation to the Homeland they Envision in wigorstan open in 1956 a new political movement appeared in China called Sing openly it was meant to train native cadres yet another political Movement we openly sang said everything in the end we were condemned as opponents of maoism as nationalists and his enemies of the state we spent a year being condemned each morning they'd start again what did you say who are you against politics of China are like that through what they call education they eventually repress everybody I went to my mother for advice she said son if your head is working you'll leave go to the Soviet Union I applied for the Visas and on Thursday the 1st of June 1961. my two daughters my wife and I cross the border into the Soviet Union I love it in 1952 my father and mother split up after my mother's brothers were shot for political reasons my dad left my mother with five kids my mother brought us up by herself then when I was studying in the sixth grade we left for the USSR at that time my father was in prison with my mother my sister and my Father's son from a former marriage my father was married three times I left for the Soviet Union my parents were born Soviet citizens they used to live in a sea in the chalique region during the repression in the 1930s life was difficult in Kazakhstan rich people were accused of being cool locks and were arrested my parents also had many problems so to find a better life they left for coolja in xinjiang and started to live there then in 1955 when I was young about seven years old we returned to the Soviet Union at that time there were good relations between the Soviet Union and China and all former Soviet citizens in China were called upon to return to this side of the Border they checked us very very closely soldiers inspected me then Medics gave my sister's medicine in total we were at the border for three days after inspecting us for three days they let us go on when we got to your Kent they quickly put us on a train to our next destination we didn't see anything we just got on the train and left um when we crossed the border we went through customs and inspection on the Chinese side then we stopped at another place for the Soviet customs there they checked our bags and they asked us do you have opium gold dangerous things and so on we didn't have anything so they let us go on next we arrived in yard Kent the first town near the border there they made us take baths and they disinfected our clothing only after a couple hours did they send us off on our own way that's how things went at the border we came to the jaharski region in the karaganda oblast soon as we got off the train they welcomed us they gave us flour milk butter Pumas all kinds of things in China there had been a famine so when we saw white bread we were very happy but there was a strong feeling of distress at the realization that we had left our homeland and our relatives of course it was sad yeah we have a lot of relatives there and we often correspond with them before when you had just come here in the 1950s could you correspond with your relatives at that time nah we couldn't write letters to each other for 25 years not only that but we didn't even dare to say we had relatives in China when I filled out the documents to join the Communist party let's see I think it was in 1973. I said that I didn't have relatives there those who had relatives in China were not allowed into the party not only were we afraid to communicate with them we were too scared to even talk about our relatives in xinjiang Le on April 28th after we had been in Kazakhstan for two days the head of the Agricultural Collective came to us and said that we too eldest had to work to support the family mother cried and said how can they work they're still too young but my sister and I replied let's try and see what happens since we started working right away my sister and I were not able to study we didn't take any classes however since we worked well we were never poor we never refused to work we tried to do whatever they asked us to but neither my sister nor I were lucky in our personal lives we were not able to find much happiness before during the Soviet period when we first arrived in Kazakhstan we had problems with the local wigors they said you're Chinese we had a lot of conflicts but now we have good relations because our children our sons and daughters have married each other we've mixed now the local uyghurs have come to like us because of our traditions they say they learn wig or Traditions from us of course because during the Communist period they forgot everything they didn't go to the mosques didn't gather for the mesh rep the traditional Gatherings or anything like that then we came relations gradually got better between us and now we have a good union all that name-calling you're a dirty Chinese you're a Soviet piece of dirt that's over there okay after the sino-soviet Border reopened in 1985 imar Beck tilvaldi and Delia piruz were permitted to visit xinjiang for the first time in over 20 years the Homeland to which they returned was neither the one they had left nor the one they had imagined in Exile capital city of urum chi remembered by many Soviet wigors as a weigor city is now predominantly Han Chinese most of China's investment in xinjiang has been concentrated in this chinese-dominated city wegor population centers such as kashgar hoton and kulja were the three wig Wars in this video once lived are less developed and remain much poorer when was it uh 1988 when the Border opened up again well anyways that's when relatives started to visit us again then in 1991 I went to xinjiang and stayed there for 71 days my wife daughters and grandchildren all went to visit our relatives in total I have about 400 relatives there they live poorly look my brother has two daughters both teachers they do all right but his sons are all without work they're very very poor the Chinese population is taking over so the uyghurs have no work after perestroika started the road to uyghurstand opened up and we renewed contact with our relatives then in 1991 my wife and I went to visit relatives and finally to my home Village Murat we saw the uyghurs there and we were very happy to see our relatives again but when we saw how they lived it made us very upset they have to work so hard there all of the men have to work on the land and everybody says that they live better now than before education is also a big problem my cousin's two daughters they don't study when one daughter finished the fourth or fifth grade she didn't want to study anymore she didn't think it would help her to find work I managed to talk her into studying further but their older daughter didn't study at all and the young boys just hang out on the street all day they drink smoke hashish play cards and shoot Billiards thank you foreign the first time I went back it was very emotional for me of course I was born there I grew up there what can you do it is my mother's land my land I met all of the relatives I didn't know I realized it was my land how did you find your relatives were they as they had been in the 1960s no they were different they had fallen in their spirit and so I didn't I saw my older sister and I didn't recognize her she had become so poor they lived very poorly and they were afraid of the state they couldn't do anything on my first trip to xinjiang I went by plane to arumchi when I got there I was so happy to be in my homeland everywhere we looked on all of the buildings the signs were in wegor as well as Chinese when I saw the signs in wegor my heart swelled up I thought here there are a lot of uyghurs there were uagurs everywhere we went in a roomchi in kulja in the bazaars and restaurants and everybody speaks we Gore when I saw this I thought yes here is my homeland it made me happy it gave me great inspiration first time you went to the other side of the Border did you feel at home when I went there well I felt a little out of place you see when you go to visit people you can't immediately be part of their world even if they are relatives they welcome you but after you are reunited with relatives what is there to do the reunion with relatives inspires you it makes you feel happy but xinjiang is no longer our home when you live somewhere else for a long time that place becomes home we were only in xinjiang for a month before we became homesick for Kazakhstan that's where our children are that's where our home is our hearts were at home the first time you went there did you do any Trading yes the first time I traded a little bit at that time the government didn't allow it but I had brought some things from Kazakhstan to give out to my relatives in xinjiang then with the money we had just exchanged to dollars I bought some things I could sell back in Kazakhstan just a little not much that first time I brought back shawls and Adidas from kulja shortly after the reopening of the sino-soviet Border till valdi dilia piruz and imar Beck faced another Monumental change the fall of the Soviet Union and the collapse of its infrastructure without State secured employment they were forced to find alternative sources of income capitalizing on their kin relations and experiences in xinjiang they now procure goods from China and sell them in Alma T Kazakhstan they sell their Wares wholesale at Alma T's Central Beryl Hoka Market about a 20-minute bus ride from the center of the city the Bara Hoka is located in Northwest suburb of Alma T known as zarya vastoka or the dawn of the East in this large bizarre Merchants from both sides of the Border can purchase large shipping containers that serve both as locked storage units by night and makeshift stores by day despite the rapid growth of this bizarre most uyghurs including the three featured in this video make minimal profits as middlemen in the cross-border trade the majority of money is made by those who produce the goods not only are most of the businessmen producing these Goods Han Chinese and not wigor but most of the products are made in the special economic zones of southern China rather than in xinjiang Le why do we sell Chinese Goods if we are against the Chinese yes they have taken our homeland we're only thinking about politics of course we wouldn't sell Chinese Goods but we are now in a period of transition and our lives have become very difficult we have to think first about feeding our families in order to survive through these times and make lives for ourselves we have to sell Goods no matter what state they are no matter what group they are connected I've only recently started trading but it isn't going well there isn't much profit yet this is new for me before I worked in a Soviet store as the head of inventory but with the inflation during perestroika my salary was no longer enough to survive on that's when I decided to start trading the trade economy only really started in full force after the fall of the Soviet Union and since the creation of new independent states here as a result of the economic chaos that followed with the opening of the border with China around the same time everybody started concentrating on the buying and selling of Chinese Goods now our whole life is based on that why because nobody has money and Chinese goods are cheap that's why everybody is Trading oh yeah awesome videos I sit at the bazaar and sell Goods myself because those who buy wholesale go to the bazaar that's why I sit at the bazaar from morning to night then I come home and do my household chores it's difficult for women we can do housework State work but trading is tough for women I'm now 47 years old my former strength is gone I have already worked 30 years for the state trading is much harder when we go abroad to buy Goods we Soviet women also have to physically carry heavy sacks and bags over the Border the men think it's funny and laugh at us for us it is very tough those in xinjiang tell us what is selling at a good price as quick as we can sell the goods we let them know and they'll send more to us we get Goods as often as once or twice a week however if one item is selling quickly we call China and tell them that we have a special client then they'll send the goods within two or three days now we have good contacts in China better transportation is available we work together to bring goods from China and they sell well here in Kazakhstan I don't only sell an Almaty I sell in caraganda in just Kazan and in Siberia Russians even come from Siberia to buy goods from me at my house it isn't bad there isn't always a prophet sometimes there is sometimes there isn't but that's how I feed my children now when you go to xinjiang to buy Goods do you work with your relatives my relatives helped me out a lot they are good Traders I get good through them and if they don't have Goods I get them at the bazaar I get most of my goods in a roomchi since most of my relatives live in kulja and don't have any contacts they can't help me so I don't work with my relatives there I do however work with my relatives here in Kazakhstan we go to China together to get goods and then sell them here we don't know Chinese and most of the stores in arumchi are owned by Chinese so we get young weigoras to work as middlemen between us and the Chinese merchants they're young kids 16 18 20 years old they help us translate and you know there's no other work for those poor kids before the barahoka was open only on Saturday and Sunday the rest of the time it was closed then they opened up the Chinese Bazaar and set up a few shipping containers in 1993. at that time a container cost about a hundred dollars now they cost anywhere from three thousand to thirty five hundred dollars for an empty container to rent the space after buying a container it costs another 6 000 10K or 100 a month soon it may be nine thousand or a hundred and fifty dollars it's a good setup for the government it's also a good deal for the small companies that are selling the containers that's why the people in charge of the bazaar start thinking and expanded when the border with uyghurstan first opened there was a lot of profit to be made at that time there were stricter limits on transporting dollars across the border for example in 1992 when we went to xinjiang for each person the government exchanged 180 dollars at six rubles and 50 co-packs per dollar but with that money you could buy a lot bring it back here and sell it for a large profit now we have to bring a lot more money to make our trips worthwhile we bring four five even ten thousand dollars but the profit is usually only 10 to 15 percent and sometimes not even that from the sandals I just bought I'm not even making a one percent profit look at these sandals you probably couldn't wear them for more than a week the stitches on the inside are already coming out the whole shipment was defective what can you do I'll be happy just to break even it is very difficult to survive now every day we take two bags of goods to the bazaar just so that we can buy bread and tea for our children so we just sit here the goods aren't selling so you're sleeping in the container nobody wants to buy these cheap Chinese Goods is good again as the trade in Chinese Goods at all Marty's Central barajoka grows it is becoming more competitive often straining the relations between wegors across the border however there is an emerging culture that transcends the economic transactions and political border that stand between the weigor people of Kazakhstan and China now there are many uyghurs from China trading at the bazaar and living temporarily in Almar tea some have even opened restaurants specializing in the cuisine of xinjiang for Delia piru's imar Beck and tilvaldi the bazaar now produces daily encounters with the people and culture of the Homeland they left over 20 years ago in these encounters uyghurs from both sides of the Border are forced to reevaluate wigor culture and what it means to be a weigor everyone again um the uyghurs from China have no work the young can't study that's why all the Young wigors from there come to Kazakhstan to work and you can't refuse help to your relatives we now have two relatives from China living with us one just left for home and will come back on the 20th of this month the other one is here now one has four children the other has three they came here to make money in order to raise their kids I am their boss they bring goods from China I look after the business and we sit here and sell the goods together recourse from that side of the Border come here for one two even three years to live and trade we are not able to do that because we have families and we won't leave them those from China they are able to come here while their wives sit at home and provide for the children it is the men there who make the money and bring it home to their families we are not able to do that in Kazakhstan we don't have that kind of situation why are you going on about how good we live I'll whack you in the head for speaking such lies it's good not that bad where yes for us it isn't that bad for you and me but there are thousands in The Villages there who live poorly we know that brother yeah it's not bad for you but for your uncle living in the village thousands of people live like that meat costs 25 Yuan now think about that anybody who doesn't think about their people is an empty person isn't that true brother true we have a lot of worries my friend film away where are you from I am from culture my name is I have already been here nine months I haven't been home once at home I have a lot of problems what are conditions like bear uyghurs live poorly there there is no work I don't have a father or a mother I am alone I don't have sisters or brothers I have three children that is why I've come here to sell Goods in xinjiang there is no work no business to do all the business belongs to the Chinese we have nothing they murder us they shoot us poor uyghurs they shoot young young boys we are poor we are forced to steal we pickpocket we become Bandits a person with no money can't be a person there were better conditions we could work in factories if the state would give us money we'd work eight hours we'd go to work in the morning wearing clean clothes buy clean clothing for our families but now everything in xinjiang is expensive meat is expensive clothes are expensive there are lots and lots of people is it better for you now here in Kazakhstan now it is a little bit better here for us we can sell a little here our pockets see money our souls get some rest the xinjiang uyghurs are surprised at us Soviet weakers they say that we drink too much we've forgotten our traditions and customs that we have no religion that's them but now we are mixing and relations are getting better between us how are your relations with the uyghurs of Kazakhstan now things are good they are not bad they are gradually starting to learn from us they had become Russian but now they are starting to mix with us they're changing for the better how about in religion in religion they are getting better now you've got a prayer here yes where here in Zaria vostoka yes here in zarya vastoka they have a big mask here they influence us in many respects especially in religion those who come here from xinjiang are very religious they tell us about Islam we have started to unite with them under the banner of Islam now many Soviet uyghurs practice religion read their prayers five times a day go to the mosque many even go on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca no it's not the influence of vigors from China we started to practice religion when the government gave us the right to return to our religion all by ourselves my son decided on his own to study the Quran now he reads the Quran and prays he himself decided to learn a 17 year old boy those from xinjiang all go to prayer every Friday not many of ours I myself don't go because I never did that before understand I know everything everything when there is a Muslim holiday height I am Ramadan Corban I read the Quran but I'm not used to the other practices yet culturally we also influence them a lot why you ask because uyghur culture has been suppressed in China but now they are coming here they work with us and we are mixing we take all the good aspects of each other's cultures and we leave the bad parts behind they are suppressed politically my nephew who lives here I call to him and say come here let's talk if I say something about politics he'll leave he is scared to be filmed for television today you ask why because in xinjiang it is not allowed to speak about the freedom of our homeland in eastern turkistan we are raising the next question here in turkey and in other foreign countries there if they even discover our newspaper find it in his home Chinese will immediately put him in jail why because the Chinese are oppressors they don't want to lose xinjiang Le understand they don't want to give us independence they think xinjiang is their new land foreign foreign cross-border trade between Kazakhstan and China is allowing uyghurs from both countries to negotiate a common National culture that transcends International borders most uyghurs feel this is not enough they still remain adamant about the need for a week or nation state that demarcates their Homeland as middlemen in a risky and tenuous trade between two states neither of which they feel represent them Emar back tilvaldi and Delia piru's have particularly strong feelings about the need for a week or nation state foreign yes we say we need sovereignty they must give us back our xinjiang we say that we need our land that the Chinese must leave we say that we will die for our land but we don't have any strength what can we do we plead with people write letters to the United Nations I don't know if it does any good but as we say you have to work for your Homeland to be proud of it the history of the weekors is ancient and great we aren't a bad people we're just asking for our own future will that future be given to us or not who knows the most important thing for the uyghurs is to get our homeland back the Mongols in outer Mongolia only number one million but they have their own state there are states in Latin America and Europe with only 400 000 people or even 40 000 people therefore the main goal of uyghurs for xinjiang is to create an independent Eastern turkistan there's no other goal me for example even if you try to hang me I will say we need xinjiang Le that is not Chinese land it is Eastern turkistan land it is in my opinion every people should have their own state everybody says if the Communist Party of China falls apart we should have our own State one day there will be Independence in xinjiang as we say God's reach is long nobody thought that the Soviet Union would fall apart but the Soviet government fell and when it fell Kazakhstan Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan all received Independence when China Falls we will have independent governments in Tibet inner Mongolia and in uyghurstan foreign like most uyghurs in Kazakhstan till valdi imar Beck and Delia piru's all agree on the importance of establishing a uyghur nation state in xinjiang however apprehensive about the culture and life they have found on the return visits to xinjiang they are less United on the question of whether they would return to their Homeland if an independent wigor state were to exist there foreign will go there everybody will go not just us we will bring our children too why everybody should have their own land the kazakhs uzbeks and kyrgyz said they needed their own land wee gors also want our own place and our own Society thing here that others don't like the kazakhs ask are you a Chinese wigor they'll say we are Chinese anyway so I answer yes I'm a Chinese vigor that wouldn't happen if we had our own place every nationality needs its own land that would be good if we gostan becomes free will we goes from Kazakhstan go there to live in my opinion the point is not whether weigor's will go there why you ask it the word uyghurstand means that we have a mother and a father we have a place in the world if there is a uyghur Stan it will be a great thing not just for our uyghurs but for uyghurs of turkey America and other countries why because we will have a Homeland and the government there will treat all uyghurs everywhere the same now we don't have a Homeland we are without a mother or a father how do people look upon such children if an orphan asks for something nobody's gonna give it to him but if a child whose father is a government official asks for water any person will bring it to him why because his father is an official connected to the state your own government works the same way if I had a state in uyghurstan my wishes would be fulfilled here now I am a person without a state nobody pays attention to me nobody listens to me I'm not saying that we are treated badly in Kazakhstan but if we had a state elsewhere we'd live better here in Kazakhstan a lot more opportunities would be open to us therefore in the future for the uyghur people for the nation we need a state if there is Independence there who knows what will happen Kazakhstan has invited kazakhs from all over the world to live in Kazakhstan I don't know some will go others will continue to live here as immigrants here it hasn't been bad for us they gave me an apartment they gave me work they give me a pension now if I leave I can say I'm in my homeland but if I stay I can continue my life here who knows but still our homeland must be free at the time this video was completed the wigor's Homeland was still a part of the People's Republic of China Emar Beck tilvaldi and Delia piru's were still trading at Alma tease barajoka market and waiting for the establishment of a uyghurst on snooze Christmas College foreign