Chinese And Turkish Cultural Policy On Minorities

This thesis is a comparative study of cultural policies of Turkey and China on Kurdish and Uyghur minorities respectively, which focuses on how they are in place to project national culture, solidarity, protection and consciousness. As a comparative study, the research aims at discovering the differences and similarities in the cultural policies of both Turkey and China on minorities. Cultural heritage, education and media are used as the prime parameters to compare and analyses the cultural policy on highlighted minorities in both countries.According to the norm of International Minority Rights Group and International Human Rights Standards, each minority’s culture should be protected, so the study looks at how Turkey and China have provided policies to protect their own cultural heritage.First Chapter introduces the research topic and the context of study in detail. Methodology, objectives, significance and structure of the thesis is outlined here. In this study mostly the qualitative research method was used to compare the application of cultural policy on the Kurdish minority in Turkey and the Uyghur minority in China. The historical, religious, educational, economic, social and political aspects of their culture were analyzed. The objective was to have a critical appraisal and appreciation of the two cultures. The comparison was focused on cultural heritage, education and media. Hence, the use of the descriptive method was relied on in this paper.Chapter Two and Three accounts for the general information about the two communities in turkey and china respectively. Historical background, demography and geographic are discussed along with the political and economic backgrounds. The sociological consideration is then given in detail in terms of ethnic classification and the cultures of minorities. It is further noted that each minority’s culture should be protected in accordance to International Minority Rights Group and International Human Rights standards, so the study looks at how Turkey and China have provided policies to protect their own cultural heritage.Chapter Four covers the details about the data and material used about the two minority cultures used in this project. Firstly non-material cultural heritage is mentioned but prime focus is given to the material aspects of culture like holidays and festivals. Details are then given about the development and prospective of education sector and media in both Kurdish and Uyghur communities. Special emphasis is laid on learning of mother tongue and the imparting of religious education in schools for minority children. Media coverage for minorities is given particularly focusing on electronic media coverage.Recommendations and suggestions are given in the last part to protect the cultural heritage, develop education sector and media rights for both minorities in accordance with the findings of the study. It is specifically recommended that in order to foster unity, cooperation and dialogue in the Kurdish Area in Turkey as well as Uyghur sub-region in China, there should be more set cultural activities among people of the minorities. More support for minorities such as their language, culture and rights in both countries will help even raise the development, as the government wants, rather than entrench diversity, as the government fears. These conclusions are given carefully according to the observations and results and further research in this direction will surely improve our understanding about the studied phenomenon.