The Han Chinese are the country's dominant ethnic group, and the Uyghurs are a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority who consider Xinjiang their homeland.
CNN: Chinese doctors say some claims of needle-stabbings are mistaken
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The population is made up of mainly-Muslim Kabardins, as well as minorities of Turkic-speaking Balkars - around 10% of the people - and Russians.
BBC: Kabardino-Balkaria profile
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The Uighurs, Turkic-speaking Muslims who, like the Tibetans, have spent the last two millennia struggling against the Han Chinese, are already a minority in their own land.