Letters from Kazak Refugees in Turkey to Yolbars Khan

To Chairman Yolbars:

We acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 21. We have not received your letters of instruction for a long time, thus we are all the more delighted and pleased to hear from you. You are very much in our thoughts and we hope that we can hear from you often from now on.

We have not been able to meet the Chinese youth representatives who have come here this time round. The department also did not send a letter to notify us in advance, and we are living in the countryside so now we cannot be there in time.

We have met Ambassador Li and told him about all our problems in detail. We did not come here because Turkey offered good help to us. The government has not been able to take care of us and makes us feel as if we have no place in the world. Driven by all sorts of difficulties, the two thousand or so refugees like us have come here temporarily and have no other motives. It was not our original intention to come to Turkey if we had been able to go to Taiwan. But the problem is about finding a place to live and establish ourselves as mentioned above, but everyone knows that we fled our homeland for the government and for the province. In the past we have told Ambassador Li all the details. Ordinary government officials think that we have abandoned the motherland and Xinjiang for Turkey and may have said so in their reports. Your Excellency and the relevant departments, there will come a day when it will be understood why we are stranded here. The government should pay attention to the problem of Xinjiang’s future and hopefully take special care of the Xinjiang refugees. It would seem right to have such a policy in light of the international situation today. The situation of our refugees who are stranded outside and are in various difficulties reflects badly on the standing of our government in the eyes of other countries. We beseech Your Excellency to please pay attention to and let the relevant departments know to render assistance to us hungry refugees. We are not ingrates like Emin and Isa who have engaged in anti-government activities. Our aim is to seek the government’s help and hope that the government will soon lead us.... (the rest of the text is missing from photocopy)

Refugees:

Ha-mu-zha [sic, Hamzah?]

Hua-li-bo-ke [sic, Qali Beg?]

We acknowledge receipt of your letter dated August 4. The fellow refugees living in Turkey are all safe. We have reported our situation the last time, and have resolved various issues. Your Excellency has detailed knowledge of our numerous difficulties in leaving our homeland and living overseas. We can only pray to Allah to watch over us and let us return to our homeland soon. Upon coming here, our fellow refugees have been given a place to stay and land to farm by the Turkey government. But we have never farmed before and we are thus unable to do so, and we have no money to do other business either. Our difficulties still cannot be resolved. In light of this, we implore Your Excellency to find a way to convey our situation to the government and have it help us to establish some basis to make a living.

Yours sincerely

Hu-si-yin-tai-ji [sic]

A-ji-ha-mu-zha [sic]

A-ji-su-li-tang [sic]

Sha-wu-ti-ba-yi [sic]