|
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
|