The Turkic Islamic Republic of East Turkestan (TIRET) was a breakaway state centered on the city of Kashgar, located in the far west of China's Xinjiang Province.

Lasting from 12 November 1933 to 16 April 1934, it was primarily the product of a pan-Turkic independence movement in the region, which consisted of Turkic, mostly Uyghur, intellectuals.

With the sacking of Kashgar in 1934 by Hui warlords nominally allied with the Kuomintang-led nationalist government in Nanjing, the TIRET was effectively destroyed.

Jadidism emphasized the power of education as a tool for personal and national self-advancement, a development sure to disturb the traditional status quo in Xinjiang.

The birth of the Soviet Union influenced the Uyghurs, increasing the popularity of nationalist independence movements and the spread of the communist message.

Autocratic, corrupt, and ineffective at managing the province's development, Jin further antagonized the populace by reinstituting Sinicization policies, increasing taxes, prohibiting participation in the hajj and bringing in Han Chinese officials to replace local leaders.

The situation came to a head in March 1930, when Maqsud Shah, the Khan of Kumul Khanate in eastern Xinjiang, died, leading Jin to abolish its autonomy and permit waves of Han migration from the neighboring Gansu.

[1] Jin then proceeded to impose direct taxes on the Turkic population, expropriated their farmland, and distributed it among Han newcomers from Gansu, sometimes compensating Uyghurs on poorer-quality land.

[2] The final straw was in April 1931 when an ethnic Chinese officer and tax collector named Chang Mu[3] wished to marry a Uyghur girl from a village Hsiao-Pu outside Hami.

[4] It was not confined to the ethnic Uyghur population alone; Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Han and Hui commanders all joined in revolt against Jin's rule, though they would occasionally break to fight one another.

The main fighting initially centered around Ürümqi, which Hui forces laid under siege until Sheng Shicai's troops were reinforced by White Russian and Manchurian soldiers who had previously fled the Japanese invasion of northeast China.

Newly bolstered, Sheng split the opposing forces around Ürümqi by offering several Uyghur commanders (led by Khoja Niyaz Hajji, an advisor to the newly elected Kumul Khan Nazir (聶滋爾), the second son of recently deceased Kumul Khan Maqsud Shah, and to Nazir's eldest son and his designated heir Bashir (伯錫爾) with whom he studied together in religious school " Khanliq " in Kumul in their childhood) positions of power in Southern Xinjiang if they would agree to turn against the Hui armies in the north, led by Ma Zhongying.

[5] On 25 February 1933 rebel forces entered Aksu Old City, shot all the Chinese residents and seized their property; it seemed probable that this was the work of Temur's men, as the Hui ( Tungan ) forces of Ma Zhancang are reported to have peacefully occupied Aksu New City, where they took possession of both the Arsenal and the Treasury, their contents were reportedly sent to Tungan Headquarters at Kara Shar.

"[10] Local provincial authorities and troops were annihilated by the miners throughout Khotan vilayet, rare Chinese population in most cases saved their lives and property, but was forced to accept Islam under the threat of execution.

On 12 November 1933, Sabit Damolla declared the establishment of the East Turkestan Republic[11] with Khoja Niyaz as its president — despite the fact that the respected commander was engaged in fighting in northern Xinjiang and had actually allied his forces with those of Sheng Shicai.

This event was organized on Sunday morning in a mass rally on the shore of Tuman River outside of Kashgar with the participation of about 7,000 troops and 13,000 civilians, including teachers and students of schools, who delivered speeches along with appointed "Ministers" of the independent republic.

In fact, the government in Kashgar was strapped for resources, plagued by rapid inflation, and surrounded by hostile powers — including the Hui forces under Ma Zhancang.

[15] After declaring independence, TIRET tried to receive international recognition, dispatching of numerous envoys by Prime Minister Sabit Damolla to the Soviet Union (Tashkent, Moscow), Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and the British Raj, though these efforts ultimately failed, with the countries refusing to recognize the envoys as representatives of an independent country.

[19] In the name of Islam, the Uyghur leader Amir Abdullah Bughra violently physically assaulted the Yarkand-based Swedish missionaries and would have executed them all, but they ended up only being banished thanks to the British interceding in their favor.

[28][29] Plundering of the valuables of slaughtered Indian Hindus happened in Posgam on 25 March and on the previous day in Karghalik at the hands of Uighurs.

The Japanese annexation of Manchuria and rumored support for Ma Zhongying's Hui forces were one cause for concern troubling Joseph Stalin, another was the prospect that rebellion in Xinjiang might spread to the Soviet Republics in Central Asia and offer a haven to Turkic Muslim Basmachi rebels.

But if you let them ( muslim rebels ) to create an Independent State in the South of the province, converting it into the Second Manchuria at the back door of the USSR, we will not be just a side watchers, we will start to act.

The Soviet brigades, with air support, scattered Ma Zhongying's troops surrounding Ürümqi and forced them to retreat southward.

On 16 February 1934, the siege of Ürümqi was lifted, freeing Sheng, his Manchurian and the White Guard Russian Cossack troops, which had been trapped in the city by Ma forces since 13 January 1934.

Khoja Niyaz had by this time arrived at Kashgar with 1,500 troops on the same day of 13 January 1934, to assume the presidency of the TIRET, going against his previous deal with Sheng.

Sabit Damolla freed for Khoja Niyaz his own Palace in the old city of Kashgar, that was established in the former Yamen or residence of the head of Chinese administration of Southern Xinjiang, and asked to form a new Government.

The conquering Hui army killed many of those who remained, and a rapid procession of betrayals among the survivors, following their expulsion from Kashgar, spelled the effective end of the TIRET.

[34] Following the Tungan capture of Kashgar, the remainders of the TIRET leadership including Prime Minister Sabit Damolla and Nur Ahmadjan retreated to Yengi Hissar to reorganize.

[37] The Kuomintang-allied Hui forces under Ma Zhongying were defeated, and Sheng consolidated his rule over northern Xinjiang with Soviet backing.

Russia had a two-sided policy in relation to the region of East Turkestan; often promising aid (in 1933 and 1944), but placing its own political and economic interests above everything else.