MUSLIMS LIVING AS MINORITIES
The Turks and the Chinese: A History of Determination and Assimilation Since becoming the Communist Party Secretary of Xinjiang on August 29, 2016, Chen Quango has applied the same brutal policies he used to “stabilize” Tibet BY MUSTAFA GÖKÇEK
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The Chinese people, who give in abundance gold, silver, millet, and silk, have always used sweet words and have at their disposal overwhelming riches, they have drawn the far away peoples nearer to themselves. But after drawing near them, these have come to see their deception” (Translation based on E. Denison Ross and Vilhelm Thomsen, “The Orkhon Inscriptions,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London 5, no. 4 [1930]: 861-76). Bilge Kagan inscribed these words of wisdom on the Orkhon Inscriptions in 732. The Khan of the Gök Türk Empire in Central Asia strongly warned his Turkish subjects against the tricks of their Chinese neighbors. Indeed, these Inscriptions, discovered in late 19th-century excavations, testify to the Turkish people’s struggle against assimilation and provide insights into China’s tactics to accomplish that very goal. History is once again repeating itself, and the Uyghurs are the latest victims of this most brutal assimilationist effort. Kul tigin Monument of Orkhon Inscriptions — Orkhon Museum, Kharkhorin, Mongolia Leading a pastoral nomadic lifestyle and grazing their cattle and other livestock herds across the steppes of Central leadership of a Chinese girl, posing as a boy, Eurasia, Turkic and Mongolian tribes con- fighting against the barbaric attackers from stantly came into contact with the Chinese the north — the Mongolian and Turkish peoples, who led an agricultural lifestyle tribes. While “history may be written by the settled in cities. Historians have typically victors,” this misrepresentation reminds us relied on the Chinese annals for most of of the need to search for the truth in historthe information regarding these nomadic ical accounts and how history is reproduced tribes, as the nomadic lifestyle enables oral everyday. cultural elements — but not keeping and Today, Beijing is leading a total and global preserving written sources — to flourish. fight to annihilate the Uyghur ethnic idenThis dependence has allowed long-stand- tity together with other Muslim minorities ing Chinese stereotypes regarding these under its rule. These minorities’ distinct nomadic peoples as barbaric and violent cultural and national identities are denied, to survive. The most recent example of this and regular Islamic practices are characis Disney’s “Mulan,” which glorified the terized as evidence of “terroristic activity.” 34 ISLAMIC HORIZONS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
While historical examples of cultural assimilation are narrated as stories of the past, what we witness and hear today are clear glimpses of a genocidal campaign, even though many nations refrain from recognizing it as such. The Orkhon Inscriptions aren’t the only evidence of China’s attempts to assimilate historical Turkish nations. Incidentally, the Chinese sources themselves contain abundant evidence of the rulers’ various strategies developed over thousands of years and their many successes. Sending brides was a significant tool in this regard. While royal marriage between empires is a common theme throughout history, there are numerous accounts of Chinese leaders who considered giving a Chinese bride as a more practical alternative to war. In 814, a Chinese official explained how a marriage that accompanied substantial dowry would cost much less than a military campaign. Thus, Chinese rulers used dynastic marriages both to build royal connections with other empires and as a tool to expand against and subdue their enemies. Indeed, the same inscriptions in which the Turkish Kagan expresses his anger over the assimilation of Turks also testify to China’s influence. Bilge Kagan prides himself on building monuments, statues and mausoleums to honor his brother Kultegin, but it was the Chinese artists, sculptors and architects who helped build them all. The inscriptions were composed of four sections, one of which was written completely in Chinese. All of these indicate the level of Chinese cultural influence among the nomadic tribes. Economic riches were long viewed as instruments of territorial gain and the assimilation of ethnic communities. As
