Asst.Prof.Dr. Kadir TEMİZ, one of the faculty members of the Department of International Relations, Faculty of Political Sciences of our University, conducted a research project titled “The Impact of Diaspora Organizations on Foreign Policies of Host Countries: The Case of Uyghur Diaspora Organizations in the United States and Turkey”.
In his research project, TEMİZ investigated the contemporary experiences of a particular ethnic and religious community (Uyghurs) suffering under the heavy oppression of an emerging great power (China) by questioning the activities of the organizations they established in the United States and Turkey. Within the scope of his research, he analyzed the causal relationships between the foreign policy decisions of host countries and the activities of diaspora organizations. TEMİZ chose the internment camps established by the Chinese government in 2017 as a sample to investigate the controversial foreign policy issue affecting the foreign policy decisions of host countries towards China.
In his research, TEMİZ revealed that communities who migrated from their homelands and became ethnic and religious minorities in the countries they went to were influential in the formation of modern nation-states since the 19th century, and became the main figures whose loyalty and obedience were questioned by nation-states during and after the two world wars in the 20th century. He pointed out that these minorities, who suffered greatly in the formation of modern nation states all over the world, at times faced the problem of social exclusion. The researcher stated that after the 1950s, with the post-colonial period in the world, ethnic and religious communities accelerated their attempts to establish their own diaspora organizations in order to cope with the problems they faced both in the host country and in the homeland, and concluded that the main idea behind the establishment of diaspora organizations was to secure their existence in the host countries, to live in a peaceful society and to influence the local and international audience through political, economic, social and cultural activities.