Great Timor ( pt, Grande Timor, id, Timor Raya) refers to the

irredentist Irredentism is usually understood as a desire that one state annexes a territory of a neighboring state. This desire is motivated by ethnic reasons (because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to the population of the parent st ...

concept of a united and independent island of

Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western part. The Indonesian part, also ...

, which is currently

divided Division is one of the four basic operations of arithmetic, the ways that numbers are combined to make new numbers. The other operations are addition, subtraction, and multiplication. At an elementary level the division of two natural numb ...

between the

independent state Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-west ...

and the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n territory of

West Timor West Timor ( id, Timor Barat) is an area covering the western part of the island of Timor, except for the district of Oecussi-Ambeno (an East Timorese exclave). Administratively, West Timor is part of East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. The ...

. The concept of unifying (or re-unifying) the island has been raised since the mid-20th century.

History

Historically, the idea of uniting Timor Island had been expressed by several Timorese groups. The earliest reference point is the pre-colonial Empire of Wehali, whose center was in today's West Timor, but the ruling group was the Tetun speaking Belunese associated with the inhabitants of the Eastern Timor. During the Japanese Occupation of the Island (1942–45), there were some Japanese and Timorese efforts to unite West and East Timor through match-making between the traditional authorities of Dutch and Portuguese Timor. Especially, Tōru Maeda (a Japanese intelligence agent, later poet, who served in Viqueque and Atambua) was instrumental in a matchmaking between the family of Don. Joaquim da Costa of Ossu and the Nai-Buti clan in Atambua. During 1974–75,

APODETI The Timorese Popular Democratic Association ( pt, Associação Popular Democrática Timorense, APODETI; id, Asosiasi Demokratik Rakyat Timor) was a political party in East Timor established in 1974, which advocated for integration into Indonesia. ...

, an East Timorese party expressed its will to integrate East Timor and West Timor through an integration into the Republic of Indonesia. This idea was reflected in the original Portuguese version of so-called Balibo Declaration in which the signatories lamented the separation with the "Indonesian people of Timor" through demarcation of the colonial borders. East Timor was invaded and

occupied ' (Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 October ...

by Indonesia in 1975, which annexed the territory as its "27th Province" in 1976, but in a referendum held in 1999, the people of East Timor voted to end

n occupation and become an independent state. This caused widespread anger among many Indonesian nationalists, particularly in the military. In 2001 and 2002, before East Timor's independence, there were claims by the

Indonesian military , founded = as the ('People's Security Forces') , current_form = , disbanded = , branches = , headquarters = Cilangkap, Jakarta , website = , commander-in-chief = Joko Widodo , ...

and some commentators,The Jakarta Post
"There are even rumors of a Timor Raya (Great Timor) and while the Indonesian authorities have denied the existence of such a movement to unite East and West Timor, it should not ignore the possibility of such an idea. Again, it is Australia that would benefit greatly from a Timor Raya." that this would inspire the secession of West Timor from Indonesia.

FRETILIN The Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor ( pt, Frente Revolucionária de Timor-Leste Independente, abbreviated as Fretilin) is a centre-left political party in East Timor. They presently hold 23 of 65 seats in the National Parliam ...

's independence movement never laid claim to West Timor at any time, before the Indonesian invasion or thereafter. After the Recovery of Independence in 2001, the government of East Timor fully recognises Indonesia's existing boundaries as inherited from the Netherlands East Indies.

References

External links

*The Jakarta Post
February 26, 2005 (ETAN selected articles)

Separatism in Indonesia West Timor Politics of East Timor East Timorese nationalism National unifications {{EastTimor-poli-stub

History

See also

References

External links