Nury Turkel

Nury Turkel
نۇرى تۈركەل
Member of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
In office
May 26, 2020[1][2] – May 14, 2024[3]
President of the Uyghur American Association
In office
2004–2006
Personal details
Born
Nury Ablikim Turkel

1970 (age 53–54)[4]
Kashgar,[5][6] Xinjiang, China
NationalityAmerican
Spouse
Nazli Bilkic
​
(m. 2007)​
Children2
ResidenceWashington, D.C.[7]
Alma materNorthwest A&F University[5]
American University
OccupationLawyer,[1][7]
public official, human rights advocate
Known forFirst U.S.-educated Uyghur lawyer[1]
Former President of the Uyghur American Association
Chairman of the Board for the
Uyghur Human Rights Project
EthnicityUyghur

Nury Ablikim Turkel (/ˌtʊrˈkɛl/; Uyghur: نۇرى ئابلىكىم تۈركەل; Chinese: 努里·特克尔, pinyin: Nǔlǐ Tèkè'ěr; b. 1970) is an American attorney, public official and human rights advocate based in Washington, D.C. He is a former chair of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, former chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, and former president of the Uyghur American Association.[8]

Turkel is the first U.S.-educated Uyghur lawyer[1][9] and the first Uyghur American to be appointed to a political position in the United States.[10] In 2020, he was included on Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.[11][12] He is the author of No Escape: The True Story of China's Genocide of the Uyghurs.

Early life

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Turkel was born in a detention center[1][7][13][14] in Kashgar[5] (Kashi) during the Cultural Revolution.[15] Turkel's grandfather had been associated with Uyghur nationalists and his mother was interned when she was six-month pregnant. Turkel lived in the detention center for the first four months of his life.[13] Turkel's father was a professor and his mother was a businesswoman.[1][13] He completed his primary and middle school in his homeland. In 1991, he was admitted by Northwest A&F University in Shaanxi Province, China.[5] In 1995, Turkel received his BA and went to the United States for graduate education, never returning to China.[13][14] He has a MA in International Relations and a JD from American University.[5][15]

Career

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US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo meets with Commissioner Turkel and Chinese dissidents (July 2020)

In 2003, Turkel co-founded the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) and has served as its chairman of the board.[6][15][16]

Between 2004 and 2006, Turkel served as president of the Uyghur American Association.[6][5][17]

In May 2020, Nury Turkel was appointed a commissioner on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)[15][18][19][20] by then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi who said of Turkel, "I am confident that he will continue to be a powerful voice for the Uyghur people and for the cause of justice around the world."[21]

Turkel resigned from his position as chair of the Uyghur Human Rights Project in May 2024 after accusations of sexual harassment of female activists from 2019, 2021, and 2022.[22][23][24][25] He also finished his term on the USCIRF in May 2024.[22]

Activism

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On March 10, 2003, Turkel made a statement to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China on the worsening human rights situation in East Turkestan (Xinjiang) in the wake of the September 11 attacks.[26]

In May 2009 he defended a group of 17 Uyghurs who had been held in Guantánamo Bay since 2002.[27] He wrote that Uyghurs have faced discrimination and are not a threat to U.S. communities.[28][29]

After the July 2009 Ürümqi riots, he condemned alleged Chinese oppression of Uyghurs in Ürümqi, saying that "the Uyghurs literally lost anything that they had, even their native language and their own cultural heritage that they had been proudly adhering to.[30][31][32]

In April 2012, Turkel praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for showing support and sympathy for the Uyghur people surrounding his trip to China in a way that was seen as rare among foreign leaders.[33][34] However, in July 2020, Turkel criticized Turkey for deporting Uyghur refugees to countries that then deported them to China.[35]

Turkey supported the June 2020 signing of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act[36][4] and a July 2020 United States Department of Commerce announcement sanctioning eleven Chinese companies involved in alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang.[37] He called for sanctions on the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) in particular.[38][39][40] In an August 2020 interview, Turkel described the camps as one of the worst global humanitarian crises and the largest incarceration of an ethnic minority since the Holocaust.[14] He also urged the U.S. Congress to pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would direct the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to presume that any goods produced in the Uyghur region are the product of forced labor.[41][4]

Books

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Turkel's 2022 book No Escape: The True Story of China's Genocide of the Uyghurs won the 2022 Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing.[42]

Recognition

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In September 2020, Turkel was named one of the Time 100 Most Influential People in the World.[11][12] In 2021, Fortune Magazine included him in their "The World's 50 Greatest Leaders" lists.[43] He received the inaugural Notre Dame Prize for Religious Liberty from the Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Initiative in June 2021.[44] He was awarded the Global Soul Award by Jewish World Watch in September 2022.[45]

Personal life

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Nury Turkel is a Muslim.[13][46] In 2007, he married Turkish American interior designer Nazli Bilkic. They have two children.[47]

Turkel is proficient in several languages, including Uyghur (his mother tongue), English, Turkish, and Mandarin Chinese.[48][49] [50]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "USCIRF Welcomes Appointment by Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Nury Turkel to U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom". United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. 26 May 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  2. ^ "Justice For All Welcomes The Appointment Of Nury Turkel To USCIRF". 27 May 2020.
  3. ^ "U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Welcomes Appointments of New Commissioners". United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. 17 May 2024. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
  4. ^ a b c Turkel, Nury. "The U.S. Must Use the New Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act to Sanction Chinese Officials for Religious Persecution". Time. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "Nury Turkel". Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  6. ^ a b c Elana Schor (6 June 2020). "Q&A: Nury Turkel on Uighurs and new religious freedom post". Associated Press. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  7. ^ a b c "Survivors of Religious Persecution at the 74th Session of the UN General Assembly". State Department. 22 September 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  8. ^ "Nury Turkel: A Turkish Primer on Engaging Beijing". www.uhrp.org. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  9. ^ Leigh Hartman (23 June 2020). "Once interned in China, Uyghur American fights for religious freedom". ShareAmerica. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  10. ^ "The Nexus with Art Swift 027". Event occurs at 1:00.
  11. ^ a b Dolkun Isa (22 September 2020). "Nury Turkel". Time. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  12. ^ a b "USCIRF Commissioner Nury Turkel Named to TIME's Annual TIME100 List of 100 Most Influential People in the World". United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. 22 September 2020. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  13. ^ a b c d e Lisa Murray (14 December 2018). "Uighur lawyer Nury Turkel says Australia should sanction Chinese officials". The Australian Financial Review. Archived from the original on 21 July 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2020 – via Internet Archive.
  14. ^ a b c Kenneth Bandler (17 August 2020). "The Uyghers' plight is a humanitarian crisis. More must be done to help". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  15. ^ a b c d "Nury Turkel, Commissioner". United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Archived from the original on 9 March 2024. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  16. ^ "CPIFC Welcomes the Appointment of Mr. Nury Turkel to USCIRF". Citizen Power Initiatives for China. 27 May 2020. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  17. ^ "Nury Turkel". Human Rights Foundation. Archived from the original on 21 July 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  18. ^ Leigh Hartman (23 June 2020). "Once interned in China, Uyghur American fights for religious freedom". U.S. Embassy in Denmark. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  19. ^ "ICT welcomes Nury Turkel's appointment to US religious freedom commission". International Campaign for Tibet. 26 May 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  20. ^ "Balance of Power: China's Treatment of Uyghurs (Podcast)". Bloomberg News. 29 June 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  21. ^ "Pelosi Floor Speech in Support of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act". Speaker Nancy Pelosi U.S. House of Representatives. 27 May 2020. Archived from the original on 22 July 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  22. ^ a b Willemyns, Alex (20 May 2024). "Uyghur rights activist resigns amid sexual harassment claims". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
  23. ^ Wilt, Haley Byrd (10 May 2024). "The Human Rights World Has a Sexual Harassment Problem". NOTUS. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
  24. ^ Tunçer, Yusuf (22 May 2024). "Türkiye'de ilk kez Aydınlık yazdı: Tacizci 'Uygur hakları' savunucusu istifa etti". Aydınlık (in Turkish). Retrieved 10 July 2024.
  25. ^ "UHRP Change of Leadership and Statement on Sexual Harassment". Uyghur Human Rights Project. 17 May 2024. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
  26. ^ "OPEN FORUM ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW IN CHINA" (PDF). pp. 9–11, 39–41.
  27. ^ Nury A. Turkel (26 June 2008). "Uighur Justice". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  28. ^ "Meet the real Uyghurs". www.foreignpolicy.com. Retrieved 20 May 2009.
  29. ^ Michael Clarke (2016). Anna Hayes, Michael Clarke (ed.). Xinjiang from the 'outside-in' and the 'inside-out': exploring the imagined geopolitics of a contested region. Inside Xinjiang: Space, Place and Power in China's Muslim Far Northwest. p. 249. ISBN 978-1-317-67250-0 – via Google Books.
  30. ^ "Uyghur Protests Widen as Xinjiang Unrest Flares". www.democracynow.org. Retrieved 7 July 2009.
  31. ^ "Mr. Nury Turkel Lawyer, Eastern Turkestan, USA". www.a9.com.tr. Archived from the original on 30 August 2018. Retrieved 8 July 2009.
  32. ^ "Nury Turkel: Why Western leaders have failed the Uighurs". www.independent.co.uk. 7 July 2009. Retrieved 8 July 2009.
  33. ^ Nury A. Turkel (19 April 2012). "A Turkish Primer on Engaging Beijing". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  34. ^ "Xinjiang in China's Foreign Relations: Part of a New Silk Road or Central Asian Zone of Conflict?". Griffith University. pp. 18–19. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  35. ^ Aykan Erdemir; Philip Kowalski (21 August 2020). "China Buys Turkey's Silence on Uyghur Oppression". Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  36. ^ "China Warns of 'Countermeasures' After Trump OKs Bill to 'Punish' Country Over Ethnic Crackdown". News18. 18 June 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  37. ^ Richard Finney (20 July 2020). "US Sanctions 11 Chinese Firms for Human Rights Abuses in Xinjiang". Radio Free Asia. Translated by Alim Seytoff. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  38. ^ Joshua Lipes (31 July 2020). "US Sanctions Key Paramilitary Group, Officials Over Abuses in China's Xinjiang Region". Radio Free Asia. Translated by Alim Seytoff. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  39. ^ "USCIRF Applauds Global Magnitsky Sanctions Against Xinjiang Entity". United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. 31 July 2020. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  40. ^ Linda Lew (24 August 2020). "Xinjiang's sprawling conglomerate may be biggest ever to face US sanctions". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
  41. ^ Nury Turkel; James W. Carr (26 August 2020). "Was Your Face Mask Made Using Forced Labor in China?". The Diplomat. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  42. ^ "The Moore Prize Past Winners". Christopher G. Moore Foundation. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  43. ^ "Nury Turkel". Fortune Magazine. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  44. ^ Dame, Marketing Communications: Web | University of Notre (11 June 2021). "Uyghur human rights advocate Nury Turkel to receive first Notre Dame Prize for Religious Liberty | The Law School | University of Notre Dame". Notre Dame Law School. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  45. ^ Hensiek, Jeff (19 September 2022). "Press Release: Gala honoring Uyghur leader Nury Turkel raises money for anti-genocide work". Jewish World Watch. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  46. ^ Margaret Hagan (19 July 2010). "The human rights repertoire: its strategic logic, expectations and tactics" (PDF). International Journal of Human Rights. 14 (4): 575.
  47. ^ Turkel, Nury (2022). No Escape: The True Story of China's Genocide of the Uyghurs. Toronto: Hanover Square Press. pp. 17, 54–55. ISBN 978-1-335-46956-4.
  48. ^ "HHRG-115-FA05-Bio-TurkelN-20180926.pdf" (PDF). Congress.gov. 26 September 2018. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  49. ^ "Attorney Nury Turkel". www.chinafile.com. 5 April 2017. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
  50. ^ "INTERPOL Red Notice Attorney". www.estlundlaw.com. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
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