1. Nury Turkel is an American attorney, author, public official, and foreign policy expert based in Washington, DC He is a former chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, and former president of the Uyghur American Association.
Nury Turkel is the author of No Escape: The True Story of China's Genocide of the Uyghurs.
Nury Turkel was born in a re-education camp in Kashgar during the Cultural Revolution.
Nury Turkel's grandfather had been associated with Uyghur nationalists and his mother was interned when she was six months pregnant.
Nury Turkel lived in the detention center for the first four months of his life.
Nury Turkel's father was a professor and his mother was a businesswoman.
Nury Turkel completed his primary and middle school in his homeland.
In 1995, Nury Turkel received his BA and went to the United States for graduate education, never returning to China.
Nury Turkel has a Master of Arts in international relations and a Juris Doctor from American University.
In 2003, Nury Turkel co-founded the Uyghur Human Rights Project and has served as its chairman of the board.
Between 2004 and 2006, Nury Turkel served as president of the Uyghur American Association.
On 10 March 2003, Nury Turkel made a statement to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China on the worsening human rights situation in East Turkestan in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
Nury Turkel wrote that Uyghurs have faced discrimination and are not a threat to US communities.
However, in July 2020, Nury Turkel criticized Turkey for deporting Uyghur refugees to countries that then deported them to China.
Nury Turkel supported the June 2020 signing of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act and a July 2020 United States Department of Commerce announcement sanctioning eleven Chinese companies involved in alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Nury Turkel called for sanctions on the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps in particular.
Nury Turkel urged the US Congress to pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would direct the US Customs and Border Protection to presume that any goods produced in the Uyghur region are the product of forced labor.
On 21 December 2021, Nury Turkel was sanctioned by the Chinese government as part of retaliatory sanctions after US government imposed sanctions on Chinese officials.
In September 2020, Nury Turkel was named one of the Time 100 Most Influential People in the World.
Nury Turkel received the inaugural Notre Dame Prize for Religious Liberty from the Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Initiative in June 2021.
Nury Turkel was awarded the Global Soul Award by Jewish World Watch in September 2022.
Nury Turkel is proficient in several languages, including Uyghur, English, Turkish, and Mandarin Chinese.