Uyghurs

Not to be confused with Yugurs.

Uyghurs
  • ئۇيغۇرلار
  • Уйғурлар
  • Uyghurlar
A Uyghur man in Kashgar
Total population
c. 9.8-11.4 million[note 1]
Regions with significant populations
China
(mainly in Xinjiang)		11 million[1]
Kazakhstan200,000 (2024)[2]
Pakistan1,000 (2021)[3]
Turkey100,000[4]
Kyrgyzstan60,210 (2021)[5]
Uzbekistan48,500 (2019)[6]
United States8,905 (per US Census Bureau 2015)[7] – 15,000 (per ETGE estimate 2021)[8]
Saudi Arabia8,730 (2018)[9]
Australia5,000-10,000[10]
Russia3,696 (2010)[11]
India2,000[12]
Turkmenistan2,500[13]
Afghanistan2,000[14]
Japan2,000 (2021)[15]
Sweden2,000 (2019)[16]
Canada~1,555 (2016)[17]
Germany~750 (2013)[18]
Finland327 (2021)[19]
Mongolia258 (2000)[20]
Ukraine197 (2001)[21]
Languages
Religion
Predominantly Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Uzbeks,[22] Ili Turks, Äynus
Uyghurs
Uyghur name
Uyghurئۇيغۇرلار‎
Transcriptions
Latin YëziqiUyghurlar
Siril YëziqiУйғурлар
Uyghur IPA[ujɣurˈlɑr]
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese维吾尔
Traditional Chinese維吾爾
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinWéiwú'ěr
Bopomofoㄨㄟˊ ㄨˊ ㄦˇ
Wade–GilesWei2-wu2-erh3
Tongyong PinyinWéi-wú-ěr
IPA[wěɪ.ǔ.àɚ]
Part of a series on
Uyghurs
Uyghurs outside of Xinjiang
Uyghur organizations
This article contains Uyghur text. Without proper rendering support, you may see unjoined letters or other symbols instead of Uyghur script.

The Uyghurs,[note 2] alternatively spelled Uighurs,[25][26][27] Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central Asia and East Asia. The Uyghurs are recognized as the titular nationality of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwest China. They are one of China's 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities.[28]

The Uyghurs have traditionally inhabited a series of oases scattered across the Taklamakan Desert within the Tarim Basin. These oases have historically existed as independent states or were controlled by many civilizations including China, the Mongols, the Tibetans, and various Turkic polities. The Uyghurs gradually started to become Islamized in the 10th century, and most Uyghurs identified as Muslims by the 16th century. Islam has since played an important role in Uyghur culture and identity.

An estimated 80% of Xinjiang's Uyghurs still live in the Tarim Basin.[29] The rest of Xinjiang's Uyghurs mostly live in Ürümqi, the capital city of Xinjiang, which is located in the historical region of Dzungaria. The largest community of Uyghurs living outside of Xinjiang are the Taoyuan Uyghurs of north-central Hunan's Taoyuan County.[30] Significant diasporic communities of Uyghurs exist in other Turkic countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkey.[31] Smaller communities live in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Australia, Russia and Sweden.[32]

Since 2014,[33][34] the Chinese government has been accused by various organizations, such as Human Rights Watch[35] of subjecting Uyghurs living in Xinjiang to widespread persecution, including forced sterilization[36][37] and forced labor.[38][39][40] Scholars[who?] estimate that at least one million Uyghurs have been arbitrarily detained in the Xinjiang internment camps since 2017;[41][42][43] Chinese government officials claim that these camps, created under CCP general secretary Xi Jinping's administration, serve the goals of ensuring adherence to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ideology, preventing separatism, fighting terrorism, and providing vocational training to Uyghurs.[44] Various scholars, human rights organizations and governments consider abuses perpetrated against the Uyghurs to amount to crimes against humanity, or even genocide.


Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ "Geographic Distribution and Population of Ethnic Minorities". China Statistical Yearbook 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
  2. ^ Kazakhstan population by ethnic groups
  3. ^ "Чей Кашмир? Индусов,Пакистацев или уйгуров?". Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  4. ^ "About The Uyghurs". East Turkistan Government in Exile. 4 March 2021. Archived from the original on 2 October 2022. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  5. ^ "Национальная самобытность: О жизни уйгуров в Кыргызстане". Moskovskij Komsomolets (in Russian). 14 April 2021.
  6. ^ "Uyghur". Ethnologue. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  7. ^ "Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Over: 2009–2013". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  8. ^ Hawkins, Samantha (18 March 2021). "Uighur Rally Puts Genocide in Focus Ahead of US-China Talks". Courthouse News. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  9. ^ "Uyghurs in Saudia Arabia".
  10. ^ "Uighur abuse: Australia urged to impose sanctions on China". www.sbs.com.au. Archived from the original on 11 September 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
  11. ^ "Перепись населения России 2010 года" [Russian census 2010]. Archived from the original on 1 February 2012. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
  12. ^ Kumar, Kumar (18 December 2016). "For Uighur exiles, Kashmir is heaven". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 5 October 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
  13. ^ "Uyghur in Turkmenistan". Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  14. ^ Gunter, Joel (27 August 2021). "Afghanistan's Uyghurs fear the Taliban, and now China too". BBC News. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  15. ^ "ウイグル族 訪れぬ平安 ... 日本暮らしでも「中国の影」". 読売新聞オンライン (in Japanese). 6 November 2021. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  16. ^ Lintner, Bertil (31 October 2019). "Where the Uighurs are free to be". Asia Times. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  17. ^ Canada, Government of Canada, Statistics (8 February 2017). "Census Profile, 2016 Census – Canada [Country] and Canada [Country]". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ Shichor, Yitzhak (July 2013). "Nuisance Value: Uyghur activism in Germany and Beijing–Berlin relations". Journal of Contemporary China. 22 (82): 612–629. doi:10.1080/10670564.2013.766383. S2CID 145666712.
  19. ^ "Language according to age and sex by region, 1990-2021". stat.fi. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  20. ^ "Khovd Aimak Statistical Office. 1983–2008 Dynamics Data Sheet". Archived from the original on 22 July 2011.
  21. ^ State statistics committee of Ukraine – National composition of population, 2001 census Archived 8 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine (Ukrainian)
  22. ^ Touraj Atabaki, Sanjyot Mehendale (2004). Central Asia and the Caucasus: Transnationalism and Diaspora. p. 31. The Uighurs, too, are Turkic Muslims, linguistically and culturally more closely related to the Uzbeks than the Kazakhs.
  23. ^ Hahn 2006, p. 4.
  24. ^ Drompp 2005, p. 7.
  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference Merriam-Webster Uighur was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. ^ "Uighur". CollinsDictionary.com. HarperCollins. Retrieved 29 April 2023.
  27. ^ "Uighur | History, Language, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 17 December 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  28. ^ "The mystery of China's celtic mummies". The Independent. London. 28 August 2006. Archived from the original on 3 April 2008. Retrieved 28 June 2008.
  29. ^ Dillon 2004, p. 24.
  30. ^ "Ethnic Uygurs in Hunan Live in Harmony with Han Chinese". People's Daily. 29 December 2000. Archived from the original on 16 October 2007. Retrieved 15 March 2007.
  31. ^ "Ethno-Diplomacy: The Uyghur Hitch in Sino-Turkish Relations" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 28 August 2011.
  32. ^ Castets, Rémi (1 October 2003). "The Uyghurs in Xinjiang – The Malaise Grows". China Perspectives (in French). 2003 (5). doi:10.4000/chinaperspectives.648. ISSN 2070-3449. "The rest of the Diaspora is settled in Turkey (about 10,000 people) and, in smaller numbers, in Germany, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Canada, the US, India and Pakistan."
  33. ^ Brouwer, Joseph (30 September 2020). "Xi Defends Xinjiang Policy as "Entirely Correct"". China Digital Times.
  34. ^ Davidson, Helen (18 September 2020). "Clues to scale of Xinjiang labour operation emerge as China defends camps". The Guardian.
  35. ^ "China: Unrelenting Crimes Against Humanity Targeting Uyghurs | Human Rights Watch". 31 August 2023.
  36. ^ Vanderklippe, Nathan (9 March 2011). "Lawsuit against Xinjiang researcher marks new effort to silence critics of China's treatment of Uyghurs". The Globe and Mail.
  37. ^ Falconer, Rebecca (9 March 2021). "Report: "Clear evidence" China is committing genocide against Uyghurs". Axios.
  38. ^ Chase, Steven (24 January 2021). "Canada urged to formally label China's Uyghur persecution as genocide". The Globe and Mail.
  39. ^ Brouwer, Joseph (25 June 2021). "China Uses Global Influence Campaign To Deny Forced Labor, Mass Incarceration in Xinjiang". China Digital Times.
  40. ^ Cheng, Yangyang (10 December 2020). "The edge of our existence". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 76 (6): 315–320. Bibcode:2020BuAtS..76f.315C. doi:10.1080/00963402.2020.1846417. S2CID 228097031.
  41. ^ Raza, Zainab (24 October 2019). "China's 'Political Re-Education of Uyghur Muslims'". Asian Affairs. 50 (4): 488–501. doi:10.1080/03068374.2019.1672433. S2CID 210448190.
  42. ^ Parton, Charles (11 February 2020). "Foresight 2020: The Challenges Facing China". The RUSI Journal. 165 (2): 10–24. doi:10.1080/03071847.2020.1723284. S2CID 213331666.
  43. ^ van Ess, Margaretha A.; ter Laan, Nina; Meinema, Erik (5 April 2021). "Beyond 'radical' versus 'moderate'? New perspectives on the politics of moderation in Muslim majority and Muslim minority settings". Religion. 51 (2). Utrecht University: 161–168. doi:10.1080/0048721X.2021.1865616.
  44. ^ McCormick, Andrew (16 June 2021). "Uyghurs outside China are traumatized. Now they're starting to talk about it". MIT Technology Review.