TY  - JOUR
T1  - TRANSNATIONAL ADVOCACY NETWORKS AND UYGHUR RIGHTS IN THE REGIONAL CONTEXT OF TÜRKİYE
TT  - ULUSÖTESİ SAVUNUCULUK AĞLARI VE TÜRKİYE’NİN BÖLGESEL BAĞLAMINDA UYGUR HAKLARI
AU  - Sarıgözmen, Murat
PY  - 2025
DA  - June
Y2  - 2025
DO  - 10.46400/uygur.1676020
JF  - Uluslararası Uygur Araştırmaları Dergisi
PB  - Alimcan	İnayet
WT  - DergiPark
SN  - 2458-827X
SP  - 39
EP  - 53
IS  - 25
LA  - en
AB  - Uyghurs are making extensive efforts to inform the international community in order to draw attention to the systematic human rights violations in East Turkestan. However, the Chinese government’s oppressive control mechanisms, intense censorship policies, and diplomatic pressures applied at the global level greatly limit these efforts. In order to overcome these obstacles, Uyghur activists adopt a decentralized, flexible, and security-focused organizational model; thus, they try to avoid direct intervention by China. Transnational advocacy networks (TANs) constitute both the theoretical and practical basis of this process. Turkey, in particular, provides a strategic platform for Uyghurs to make their voices heard by international organizations and the public, with its position as a bridge between the East and the West. This article aims to analyze the structure of Uyghur rights advocacy, the persistent obstacles it faces, and the strategic adaptation mechanisms it has developed against oppressive environmental conditions, based on the TANs framework. In this context, the study aims to make an original contribution to both international relations theory and human rights advocacy.
KW  - Transnational Advocacy Networks
KW  - Uyghur Advocacy
KW  - Human Rights Advocacy
KW  - Türkiye
KW  - China
N2  - Uygurlar, Doğu Türkistan’da sistematik bir biçimde süregelen insan hakları ihlallerine dikkat çekmek amacıyla uluslararası kamuoyunu bilgilendirmeye yönelik kapsamlı bir çaba içerisindedir. Ancak Çin hükümetinin baskıcı kontrol mekanizmaları, yoğun sansür politikaları ve küresel düzeyde uyguladığı diplomatik baskılar, bu çabaları büyük ölçüde sınırlamaktadır. Uygur aktivistleri, bu engelleri aşmak için merkezi olmayan, esnek ve güvenlik odaklı bir örgütlenme modelini benimsemekte; böylece Çin’in doğrudan müdahalesinden kaçınmaya çalışmaktadırlar. Ulusötesi savunuculuk ağları (Transnational Advocacy Networks – TANs), bu sürecin hem teorik hem de pratik temelini oluşturmaktadır. Özellikle Türkiye, Doğu ile Batı arasındaki köprü konumuyla, Uygurların seslerini uluslararası kuruluşlara ve kamuoyuna duyurabilmeleri açısından stratejik bir platform sunmaktadır. Bu makale, TANs çerçevesinden hareketle Uygur hakları savunuculuğunun yapısını, karşılaştığı kalıcı engelleri ve baskıcı çevre koşullarına karşı geliştirdiği stratejik uyum mekanizmalarını analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu bağlamda çalışma, hem uluslararası ilişkiler teorisine hem de insan hakları savunuculuğuna özgün bir katkı sunmayı hedeflemektedir.
CR  - Bachulska, Alicja (2021). “EU and China Impose Tit-for-Tat Sanctions over Human Rights Abuses in Xinjiang”. Asia Research Centre, Brief 49.
CR  - Byler, Darren (2021). In the Camps: China's High-Tech Penal Colony. Columbia Global Reports.
CR  - Çolakoğlu, Selçuk (2019). “China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Turkey’s Middle Corridor: A Question of Compatibility.” Middle East Institute.
CR  - Ercilasun, Güljanat Kurmangaliyeva, and Konuralp Ercilasun (2018). The Uyghur Community: Diaspora, Identity and Geopolitics. Palgrave Macmillan US, New York.
CR  - Finley, Joanne Smith (2020). "Why Scholars and Activists Increasingly Fear a Uyghur Genocide in Xinjiang." Journal of Genocide Research, 23:3, 348-370.
CR  - Franken, Michel (2020). "Exploring the Role of Digital Technologies in Uyghur Political Activism." Journal of Human Rights and Technology, 4(1): 10-25.
CR  - Gladney, Dru C. (2006). “China’s ‘Uyghur Problem’ and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization”. U.S.-China Ecomonic & Security Review Commission Hearings. (Washington, DC, 03.08.2006).
CR  - Keck, Margaret E., and Kathryn Sikkink (1998). Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Cornell UP.
CR  - Kuşçu, Işık (2014). "The Uyghur Diaspora in Cyberspace: Identity and Homeland Cause". Bilig, 69: 143–160.
CR  - Maizland, Lindsay (2022). "China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang". Council on Foreign Relations.
CR  - Malik, Mohan (2009). “The Shanghai Cooperation Organization”. The Routledge Handbook of Asian Security Studies. Routledge, 88-102.
CR  - Miller, Greg, Ćosić, Jelena, and Lee-Smith, Tamsin (2025). “China Deploys NGOs to QUASH Criticism at U.N. Organizations in Geneva.” The Washington Post.
CR  - Roberts, Sean R (2020). The War on the Uyghurs: China's Internal Campaign Against a Muslim Minority. Princeton University Press.
CR  - Rolland, Nadège (2017). “China's Eurasian Century? Political and Strategic Implications of the Belt and Road Initiative”. National Bureau of Asian Research, 93-120.
CR  - Schuman, Michael (2023). “Why China Won’t Win the Global South”. Atlantic Council.
CR  - Smith, Julia (2019). “Corporate Interests Within Transnational Advocacy Networks: The International Coalition Against Plain Packaging”. Global Networks, 20(4): 675–695.
CR  - Uluyol, Yalkın (2024). “Partnership with Limits: China–Turkey Relations in the Late AKP Era.” Heinrich Böll Stiftung.
CR  - Uyghar and Alim Seytoff (2025). “Report: China Has Half a Million Uyghurs in Prison or Detention.” Radio Free Asia.
CR  - Xu, Vicky Xiuzhong, et al (2020). "Uyghurs for Sale: 'Re-education', Forced Labor and Surveillance Beyond Xinjiang". Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
CR  - Zenz, Adrian (2018). “‘Thoroughly Reforming Them Towards a Healthy Heart Attitude’: China’s Political Re-Education Campaign in Xinjiang”. Central Asian Survey.
CR  - Internet References:
URL-1: https://aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/25/turkey-says-conveyed-sensitivity-about-uighurs-to-china (Access: 25.02.2025).
CR  - URL-2: https://amnesty.org/en/documents/asa17/4137/2021/en/ (Access: 10.04.2025).
CR  - URL-3: https://amnesty.org.uk/urgent-actions/missing-and-arbitrarily-detained-xinjiang (Access: 12.02.2025).
CR  - URL-4: https://aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale (Access: 11.03.2025).
CR  - URL-5: https://congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3744/text (Access: 26.02.2025).
CR  - URL-6: https://doguturkistander.org/2024/10/29/uygurlar-cin-isgalini-protesto-etti/ (Access: 13.02.2025).
CR  - URL-7: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/10/asia/turkey-china-uyghur-xinjiang-intl/index.html (Access: 27.01.2025).
CR  - URL-8: https://enduyghurforcedlabour.org/ (Access: 11.04.2025).
CR  - URL-9: https://hrw.org/news/2023/11/22/china-mosques-shuttered-razed-altered-muslim-areas (Access: 02.04.2025).
CR  - URL-10: https://hrw.org/news/2023/05/04/china-phone-search-program-tramples-uyghur-rights#:~:text=China%3A%20Phone%20Search%20Program%20Tramples,to%20flag%20Uyghur%20and (Access: 20.05.2025).
CR  - URL-11: https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/01/31/china-religious-regulations-tighten-uyghurs#:~:text=The%20revisions%2C%20effective%20February%201%2C,and%20regulations%20adopted%20since%202014 (Access: 19.05.2025).
CR  - URL-12: https://hrw.org/report/2021/04/19/break-their-lineage-break-their-roots/chinas-crimes-against-humanity-targeting (Access: 02.04.2025).
CR  - URL-13: https://icij.org/investigations/china-cables/ (Access: 01.04.2025).
CR  - URL-14: https://ihh.org.tr/en/news/ihh-releases-new-report-on-east-turkestan-2905 (Access: 09.01.2025).
CR  - URL-15: https://nypost.com/2024/09/08/opinion/china-is-abusing-the-freedoms-allowed-in-the-us-to-run-a-massive-propaganda-operation/ (Access: 08.03.2025).
CR  - URL-16: https://ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ohchr-assessment-human-rights-concerns-xinjiang-uyghur-autonomous-region (Access: 19.03.2025).
CR  - URL-17: https://ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43-2/FAAE/report-4/page-33 (Access: 27.03.2025).
URL-18: https://sozcu.com.tr/uygur-turklerinden-istanbulda-cin-karsiti-eylem-wp7754842 (Access: 11.02.2025).
CR  - URL-19: https://tcmb.gov.tr/wps/wcm/connect/tr/tcmb+tr/main+menu/duyurular/basin/2021/duy2021-24 (Access: 18.05.2025).
CR  - URL-20: https://uhrp.org/statement/uyghur-camp-survivors-testimony-heard-by-us-house-foreign-affairs-committee/ (Access: 03.04.2025).
CR  - URL-21: https://uyghurcongress.org/en/category/reports/world-uyghur-congress/ (Access: 04.04.2025).
CR  - URL-22: https://voaturkce.com/a/uygurlar-istanbulda-cini-protesto-etti/7292334.html (Access: 14.03.2025).
CR  - URL-23: https://wwsj.com/articles/china-used-twitter-facebook-more-than-ever-last-year-for-xinjiang-propaganda-11617101007 (Access: 30.03.2025).
CR  - URL-24: https://ytb.gov.tr/haberler/uygurlarin-somut-olmayan-kulturel-mirasi-uygur-on-iki-makami (Access: 05.04.2025).
CR  - URL-25 : https://www.cato.org/commentary/chinas-gulag-muslims (Access: 17.03.2025).
UR  - https://doi.org/10.46400/uygur.1676020
L1  - https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/4772937
ER  -