Dictionary

East Turkestan en · PROPN

Pronunciation

• /isːt ˌtɜː(ɹ)kɪˈstɑːn/ (UK)
• /isːt ˌtɜɹkɪˈstæn/ (US)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /isːt ˈtɜɹkɪˌstæn/ (US)

Meanings

1. A geographic region in northwestern China; in modern usage, a synonym of Xinjiang used by the East Turkestan independence movement.
   • I know what it means to be dislocated at the hands of an occupying armed force — the terror and pain over the loss of a homeland, the immediate urgency of staying alive, the uncertain future and the fight ahead. My family left my hometown of Ghulja, East Turkestan, in the 1970s, crossing the short border between China and Afghanistan to seek sanctuary in Kabul. Our story of exile is the story of millions of Uyghurs and the hundreds of millions of displaced people across the globe. 2022 March 7, Omer Kanat, “Uyghurs Stand With Ukrainians”, in The Diplomat, archived from the original on 07 Mar 2021:
   • It is the opinion of an important school of archeologists that the earliest products of metallurgy in bronze and iron successively progressed to the western world from the far East — a progress that in each case carried with it a revolution in civilizations. We do not know whether this region saw the birth of the metallurgy of those elemental substances which — beginning with copper and tin and progressing through bronze to iron and steel and the use of coal — marks the birth of civilization and its great revolutions. If it was not the birthplace of this art, and if it was a distributing center, it is a long step nearer to any far eastern source, whether this was China, East Turkestan, India, or Persia. 1905, Raphael Pumpelly, Explorations in Turkestan, with an account of the basin of eastern Persia and Sistan, page 16:
   • For most of their history, the Uyghurs lived as tribes in a loosely affiliated nation on the northern Chinese border (sometimes called East Turkestan). Most do not think of themselves as Chinese, and some want to break away from China and form an independent state. They wish to emulate their Turkic Muslim neighbors in Central Asian states like Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, which gained independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. 2006, Sheila Hollihan-Elliot, Muslims in China, Mason Crest Publishers, →ISBN, page 55:
   • He and his business partner, Nur Ahmet Mahmut, 32, publish anything they can find, from Uighur history and literature to children’s stories and cookery books. They sell symbols of their hoped-for republic, East Turkestan — such as its sky blue flag with white crescent and star — items that are outlawed in China. 2019, Carlotta Gall, “They Built a Homeland Far From China’s Grip. Now They’re Afraid.”, in New York Times:
   • After Lou-lan, however, the Qum darja river and, north of this, the parallel mountain range of Quruq-tagh again seem to offer some guidance, when choosing the northern route through East Turkestan. 1962, Bertil Almgren, Geographical Aspects of the Silk Road Especially in Persia and East Turkestan, number 34, Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, page 96:
   • For Anwar Yusuf Turani, a Washington D.C.-based school teacher and prime minister of the exiled government of East Turkistan – the pro-independence name for Xinjiang – all of this is too little too late by Beijing. Evasive about whether pro-independence supporters are present in Central Asia, he says that he communicates regularly with people in Xinjiang, even if it’s difficult with social media mostly blocked. “The Chinese government makes propaganda telling the people of East Turkestan that we should live in harmony, that the vast majority of the Uyghur people want to live with China,” Turani tells The Diplomat. 2013, Steve Finch, “China Courts Central Asia”, in The Diplomat:
   • Xinjiang has been claimed by China since the CCP took power in 1949. Some Uyghurs living there refer to the region as East Turkestan and argue that it ought to be independent from China. Xinjiang takes up one-sixth of China’s landmass and borders eight countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan.[…] In October 2024, the European Parliament passed an emergency resolution that condemned the persecution of Uyghurs and urged the Chinese government to release detainees. Members of the Amsterdam City Parliament went further in July 2025, passing a motion to use the name “East Turkestan” in place of “Xinjiang.” 2025 October 3, Lindsay Maizland, “China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang”, in Council on Foreign Relations, archived from the original on 13 Jan 2026:
   • The introduction of Mohammedanism occurred during the seventh century. Mohammedanism has its largest following in the northwestern portion of the empire, and it has once or twice threatened the peace of the government in that region, especially in the dependency of East Turkestan. 1906, James Whitford Bashford, China and Methodism, page 31:
   • It is the administrative hq. of the dist. Altai [Chinese Aerhtai or Ashan], by which name the town is sometimes called, and which formed part (1944-50) of the East Turkestan Republic. 1952, “Sharasume”, in Leon E. Seltzer, editor, The Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World, Morningside Heights, NY: Columbia University Press, →OCLC, page 1745, column 2:
   • Furthermore for many regions of eastern and southern China it is the mat rather than the carpet that is more suited to the climate as a floor covering. Carpet export from east Turkestan was therefore always directed primarily westwards and to a lesser extent southwards. In old Chinese documents there is scarcely a mention of the carpets of east Turkestan. 1970 [1964], Reinhard G. Hubel, “The carpets of East Turkestan”, in Katherine Watson, transl., The Book of Carpets, West Germany: Praeger Publishers, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 267:
   • Within the independent government of the East Turkestan Republic, while Sabid-da-Mulla insisted upon defending the Old City of Kashgar to the death, Mahum and Nias wanted to quit the Old City for the time being, withdraw to Ying-chi-sha, and plan a second uprising. 1946, Military Information: Sinkiang Rebellions 1931-1937, page 9:
   • I only knew one of the men at the table — a friend of a good friend from China — and after listening to several speeches that I did not understand, and several gulps of whiskey, I went to go talk to him. But he doesn’t speak much English, and I felt communicating with him in Mandarin would be in poor taste. So I smiled at him, and he smiled sadly at me, and pulled out his accordion. "We eat, we talk, we drink — water or tea, not vodka, like me," Alptekin said with an exaggerated wink, as my friend stared into the distance beyond the gym wall and started playing a mournful song on the accordion. "And that’s how we free East Turkestan." 2013, Isaac Stone Fish, “My Dinner With Alptekin”, in Foreign Policy:
   • It seems to me that I entered the hills, from the Indian side, at Barakau on the 25th of June last; that I reached the ‘top’ on the Depsang plains on the 14th of this month; and that to-day I have emerged on the Central Asian side of the hills into the plains of Eastern Turkestan. [1876 [1874 September 27], J. Scully, “A Contribution to the Ornithology of Eastern Turkestan”, in Allan Hume, editor, Stray Feathers: A Journal of Ornithology for India and its Dependencies, volume IV, Calcutta: Calcutta Central Press, →OCLC, page 59:
   • Congress makes the following findings: (1) The Government of the People’s Republic of China has a long history of repressing Turkic Muslims and other Muslim minority groups, particularly Uyghurs, in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (“Xinjiang” or “XUAR”), also known as East Turkestan. 2021 March 8, Theodore Deutch, “H.R.1630 - Uyghur Human Rights Protection Act”, in Congress.gov:
   • My brother was killed on the streets in 1992. He was only 18. He was attacked by a mob of Chinese construction corps soldiers. He was killed in East Turkestan (also known as the Xinjiang region of western China) because he engaged in a peaceful protest with his friends against the millions of Han Chinese being sent into our homeland to dominate the land of our people, the Uighurs. I later gave his name to my newborn baby boy and decided to leave my country in search of a peaceful life for him in Canada. 2019, Rukiye Turdush, “How China tried to stop my freedom of speech — in Canada”, in Washington Post:
   • According to data assembled by the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) from Chinese and overseas media, a range of 656 to 715 individuals lost their lives in the violence that engulfed Uyghurs and other ethnicities between 2013-14. The number of fatalities in 2014 is approximately double that of 2013. Although these numbers should not be considered definitive, as the Chinese government tightly controls information in East Turkestan, they are indicative of a deterioration in conditions during the two calendar years of Xi Jinping’s tenure as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and President of the People’s Republic of China. 2015, “Legitimizing Repression: China’s “War on Terror” Under Xi Jinping and State Policy in East Turkestan”, in Uyghur Human Rights Project, Washington, D.C., archived from the original on 14 Sep 2020:

Forms

Deriveds

East Turkestan Republic

Relateds

Altishahr

Translations (34)

cmn 東土耳其斯坦 /东土耳其斯坦 (a historical region in Asia) · be Усхо́дні Туркеста́н (a historical region in Asia) · sv Östturkestan (a historical region in Asia) · tk Gündogar Türküstan (a historical region in Asia) · cs Východní Turkestán (a historical region in Asia) · kk Шығыс Түркістан (a historical region in Asia) · fi Itä-Turkestan (a historical region in Asia) · hi पूर्व तुर्किस्तान (a historical region in Asia) · fa-ira تُرْکِسْتانِ شَرْقی (a historical region in Asia) · sk Východný Turkestan (a historical region in Asia) · tg Туркистони шарқӣ (a historical region in Asia) · tt Көнчыгыш Төркистан (a historical region in Asia) · hy Արևելյան Թուրքեստան (a historical region in Asia) · uz Sharqiy Turkiston (a historical region in Asia) · pl Turkiestan Wschodni (a historical region in Asia) · cmn 東突厥斯坦 /东突厥斯坦 (a historical region in Asia) · uk Схі́дний Туркеста́н (a historical region in Asia) · bn পূর্ব তুর্কিস্তান (a historical region in Asia) · ka აღმოსავლეთ თურქესტანი (a historical region in Asia) · ur مَشْرِقی تُرْکِسْتان (a historical region in Asia) · mn Зүүн Туркестан (a historical region in Asia) · tr Doğu Türkistan (a historical region in Asia) · fr Turkestan oriental (a historical region in Asia) · el Ανατολικό Τουρκεστάν (a historical region in Asia) · ko 동튀르키스탄 (a historical region in Asia) · ru Восто́чный Туркеста́н (a historical region in Asia) · ug شەرقىي تۈركىستان (a historical region in Asia) · bg И́зточен Туркеста́н (a historical region in Asia) · crh Şarqiy Türkistan (a historical region in Asia) · ja 東トルキスタン (a historical region in Asia) · az Şərqi Türküstan (a historical region in Asia) · ky Чыгыш Түркстан (a historical region in Asia) · ar تُرْكِسْتَان الشَّرْقِيَّة (a historical region in Asia) · de Ostturkestan (a historical region in Asia)

wikipedia: National Geographic Society