Being part of the Kazakh diaspora of Kazakhs that had emigrated from Western China (Xinjiang province) to Turkey in the 1950s, I was born and raised in the Western hemisphere. However, like most of the Kazakhs of the diaspora, I was also raised in a small community of Kazakhs, learning the language and certain cultural aspects (which have been blurred by Turkish customs as well). So there is always a moment of mild surprise when I meet Kazakhs from Kazakhstan. One of the comments I got was: “You don’t look or act like a Kazakh.” This made me think of the gap of experiences the Kazakhs from China and the Kazakhs from Kazakhstan seem to have lived through.

The Kazakhs were a united people under Kasim Khan during the 16^th century, however they split into three large, territorially based tribal confederations (the “Greater Horde”, “Middle Horde” and the “Little Horde”). Later, when the Oyrat Mongols started to expand their territory into Central Asia, the majority of the hordes sought protection under the Russians. When the Mongols were defeated and dispersed by the Qing army (Chinese), the Kazakhs of the “Greater Horde” sent tribute to the Qing Emperor. However, when the Czarist government started to expand its territory and its control over Kazakh territories, the Kazakhs gradually moved into China, which was under the Manchu rule at that time. They established themselves in the northern part of what was to become Xinjiang, which was situated in the mountainous border between Russia and China and which, with the signing of border agreements between the countries, had become part of the Qing government by 1864.

This means that the Kazakhs of China never found themselves under Russian rule after 1864 and that they had lived and established themselves in very different cultural surroundings. This is important since it explains the cultural difference among the Kazakhs of China, who are generally considered to be more traditional and religious, and those of the former Soviet Union.

Later, some thousand Kazakh families fled Xinjiang, due to nationalist suppression caused by the Chinese government in the 1930s. A second wave of emigration took place in the 1950s, this time caused by repression from the Chinese Communist administration. These families, after crossing the Himalayas and a long residence in Pakistan and Kashmir, were invited by the Turkish government in 1952 as “brothers” and were settled in Anatolian refugee settlements. The families were granted citizenship and housing. They established their own leather factories, and due to economic and social changes in Turkey, they moved to main urban centers in the 1960s and 1970s. Also, at the beginning of the 1960s, some Kazakhs in Turkey have migrated to Western Europe. All in all, there is said to be about 20,000 Kazakhs from Xinjiang in Turkey and Western Europe. Today, we find the majority of Kazakhs in France, Germany and Netherlands. However, there has been further migration, which has caused the presence of Kazakhs in Sweden, Great Britain, Austria, Norway, Denmark, the USA and Canada. 

So what does “homeland” mean for these Kazakhs? For a long time, the Kazakhs in Turkey (including those who migrated to Western Europe) identified themselves with “Eastern Turkestan” (the unofficial name given to Xinjiang when it attained a short independence during the Chinese rule). The consciousness of Kazakhstan as an independent country was never strong among the population.

Nevertheless, the past few years, there appears to be an increase in Kazakh patriotism, also as a result of Nazarbayev’s repatriation policy and active cooperation between the diaspora in Turkey and the Kazak Embassies in the respective host states. About a dozen Kazakhs from Turkey have moved to Kazakhstan to study in their “ancient homeland”. The establishment of the Ahmet Yesevi University by Nazarbayev and the former Turkish President Demirel as the “Public Turkistani University” in the city of Turkestan in 1993 has been encouraging student exchanges between Kazakhstan and Turkey, including the ethnic Kazakhs of Turkey. It will be interesting to see whether the cultural differences between the ethnic Kazakhs in Turkey, who were on the brink to becoming completely assimilated into the Turkish culture and the Kazakhs from Kazakhstan will be overbridged and a genuine dialogue will be launched between these apparently “two different peoples”.