The role of geopolitics in Turkey’s diplomatic approach to the Second East Turkestan Republic (1939–1949)

Using the Ankara-based Turkish Diplomatic Archives (thrown open to the public recently), this paper explores how Turkey’s diplomatic line on (what is currently called) the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) People's Republic of China unfolded through the decade following Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s death on 10 November 1938. The documents studied here are chiefly diplomatic correspondences from the Turkish outposts in China, Japan and Afghanistan dating from 1939–1949. The study outlines how Turkey readjusted itself vis-a-vis the Uyghurs in response to its evolving geo-strategic needs – to which its religious, linguistic, and cultural continuities with the Uyghurs were secondary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]