Great Timor (Indonesian: Timor Raya) refers to the irredentist concept of a united and independent island of Timor, covering formerly Portuguese East Timor, and formerly Dutch (now Indonesian) West Timor.
East Timor was invaded and occupied 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 Indonesian 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 [1] and some commentators,[2] that this would inspire the secession of West Timor from Indonesia.
However, there is no real evidence whatsoever that the people of West Timor, most of whom are from Atoni ethnicity who are the traditional enemy of East Timorese, have any interest in joining their tribal enemies. Additionally, East Timor's independence movement never laid claim to West Timor at any time, before the Indonesian invasion or thereafter. Similarly, the government of East Timor fully recognises Indonesia's existing boundaries as inherited from the Netherlands East Indies. This is similar to the position taken by Papua New Guinea in relation to Papua and West Papua in Indonesia, when Papua New Guinea became independent of Australia.
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