The aim of this paper is to reveal how the ethnonym Uyghur and the homeland of the Uyghurs, East Turkestan, are used in the epics compiled from the Uyghur Turks. Epics are comprehensive cultural materials transferred from a people's past to the present. No matter how deep the history of epics is, despite the changes and transformations that have occurred over the centuries, traces of the period in which the epic was created reveal themselves as a layer. For this reason, epics were preferred to examine the Uyghur identity and the visibility of East Turkestan in the narratives of Turkishness in the region. In the paper, seven epics that are popular and prominent among Uyghurs are discussed. These are the epics of Emir Göroğlu, Boz Yiğit, Gülendem, Naziğim, Kamerşah and Şemsicanan, Hörlika and Hemracan and Yusuf and Ahmed. In the Emir Göroğlu Epic, no settlement is mentioned in East Turkestan and Uyghurs are not mentioned at all in the epic. In the Gülendem Epic, both the Uyghur ethnonym and the geography of East Turkestan are included in a fiction consistent with historical events. The events described in the Epic of Naziğim are related to the recent history of East Turkestan. For this reason, the name Uyghur and the settlements in East Turkestan are quite distinct. In the Epic of Kamerşah and Şemsicanan, neither the Uyghur nor any other people are mentioned, and there is no reference to a place name related to East Turkestan. Again, there is no mention of the Uyghur people in the Epic of Hörlika and Hemracan. In the epic, only some geographical names for East Turkestan are mentioned, such as Mount Kongur (or Mount Karonggu). While the ethnonym Uyghur is not included in the Epic of Yusuf and Ahmed, cities of East Turkestan such as Kashgar, Aksu and Khoten are mentioned among the toponyms included. In our research, our thoughts on the reasons for the variability of references to the Uyghur ethnonym and the geography of East Turkestan in the epics are included. Text analysis method was used in the research.
East Turkestan, Uyghurs, Epic, Migration.