The Days of the Uyghurs of Kyrgyzstan
From: Information info@mail.uyghurinfo.com / Oetkur Umit
 
Kyrgyzstan, May 31, 2001

BISHKEK.(TCA)-- "Asalaam aleikum. Peace be with you."  The classic greeting rang out on May 26 from various speakers at the Philarmonia Hall in Bishkek. The
speakers and the audience were celebrating the  participation of the Uyghur community during  Kyrgyzstan's ten years of  independence. The speakers  included representatives from the Uyghur diaspora in  Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the governor of the Chui  Oblast, the former Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz  Republic, and a variety of Uyghur scholars,  professors  and scientists from Kyrgyzstan's universities.  There are an official 47,000 Uyghurs in Kyrgyzstan,
mainly in Bishkek, the Chui Valley, and in the Osh and  Jalal-abad Oblasts. The Uyghurs are one of 28 diaspora  nationalities living in Kyrgyzstan under the rubric  of "Unity, Peace, and Inter-ethnic accord in our Common  Home of Kyrgyzstan." The Uyghurs in Kyrgyzstan claim a  kinship with the Uyghurs of Kazakhstan and the Uyghurs of northwest China where almost ten million share their
homeland with other nationalities. 
During his greeting, former Prime Minister Amangeldi  Muraliev, now leader of the United Party, said, "We  Kyrgyz are happy to live together with Uyghurs as  brothers and sisters on this small planet earth. We
have lived together as neighbors for a long time in  peace."       Members of a nation without a state are often vilified
in the media. Basques, Palestinians and Kurds are often  portrayed as violent  terrorists, and the same brush is  being applied to the Uyghurs today. In the media, the  Uyghurs are often associated with the Islamic  terrorists that threaten Central Asian stability and  with the Chechen nationalists who fought Russian troops
for a greater degree of self-determination. The  Shanghai Five signatory nations, who have created a  base of anti-terrorist operations in Bishkek, have  targeted the Uyghurs as a potential source  of "separatist" activity.         The Uyghur communities in Kyrgyzstan and  Kazakhstan   resent being portrayed as terrorists. Their celebration  of  Kyrgyzstan's ten years of independence was a  reminder that Uyghur culture is rich and long and has  contributed much in music, art and literature to the  development of Central Asian civilization. Over many  centuries, the Uyghurs have inspired cultural artefacts  from spaghetti to the first Turkic dictionary.      The Uyghur community, without foreign grants or  support, sponsored the activities  celebrating Uyghur   contributions to Kyrgyzstan. These activities included
a concert featuring some of the top Uyghur musicians,  dancers and performers in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. On  Sunday, May 27, a free concert was held at the Spartak  Stadium featuring the local Uyghur pop group "Sun Town"  and the very popular Uyghur group "Dervish" from
Kazakhstan. This event was followed by a concert of  traditional Uyghur music by the ensemble "Sada"  performing in the Kyrgyz Drama Theatre.     One Uyghur humorist claimed that Marco Polo, when he  visited the Uyghurs, said that they would sing and
dance even if another flood came. This seems to be a  national character trait developed during centuries of tumult in Turkestan. Some people in desperation take up  guns and kill, others who suffer learn to pick up a  musical instrument and sing, dance and make jokes. The Uyghurs have learned to fashion a pearl of wisdom and a call to peace out of their tears and suffering