Nury Turkel

Nury Turkel
Former Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
In office
May 26, 2020 – May 14, 2024
President of the Uyghur American Association
In office
2004–2006
Personal details
Born
Kashgar
Spouse
Nazli Turkel
​
(m. 2007)​
Children2
EducationNorthwest A&F University (BA)
American University (MA, JD)
OccupationLawyer,
public official, human rights advocate
Known for
First U.S.-educated Uyghur lawyer
Former President of the Uyghur American Association
Former Chairman of the Board for the
Uyghur Human Rights Project
Ethnicity
Uyghur

Nury Turkel is an American attorney, author, public official, and foreign policy and national security expert based in Washington, D.C. He is a former chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Turkel is the first U.S.-educated Uyghur lawyer and the first Uyghur American to be appointed to a political position in the United States. In 2020, he was named to Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and was included among Fortune's 50 Greatest Leaders the following year. He is the author of No Escape: The True Story of China's Genocide of the Uyghurs.

Early life

Turkel was born in a re-education camp in Kashgar during the Cultural Revolution. Turkel's grandfather had been associated with Uyghur nationalists and his mother was interned when she was six months pregnant. Turkel lived in the detention center for the first four months of his life. Turkel's father was a professor and his mother was a businesswoman. He completed his primary and middle school in his homeland. In 1994, he graduated from the Northwest A&F University in Shaanxi Province, China. After residing in Beijing for a year, he left for the United States in 1995 to pursue graduate studies and has not returned to China since. Turkel has a Master of Arts in international relations and a Juris Doctor from American University.

Career

Turkel practiced law in the areas of global trade, regulatory compliance, anti-corruption, export controls, and economic sanctions. At Covington & Burling, he advised multinational companies on corporate compliance, internal investigations, international trade, and U.S. government enforcement matters involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), export controls, and economic sanctions.

He later served as compliance counsel at Ericsson, where he worked on global corporate compliance, anti-corruption, export controls, economic sanctions, and business and human rights matters.

Public service and think tank work

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

In May 2020, Turkel was appointed a commissioner of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) by then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. He was reappointed in May 2022 and was unanimously elected chair for the 2022–2023 term. Pelosi 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."

Turkel served as a senior fellow on the Hudson Institute.

Policy advocacy

Turkel co-founded the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) in 2003 and served as its first executive director and later chairman of the board, a position he held until May 2024. From 2004 to 2006, he served as president of the Uyghur American Association.

Turkel has testified before the United States Congress and congressional commissions on numerous occasions on issues including Uyghur human rights, forced labor, international religious freedom, digital authoritarianism, supply chain security, and U.S.–China relations. His appearances have included testimony before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, the United States House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, and the United States House Committee on Ways and Means.

Beginning in 2018, Turkel advocated for U.S. sanctions targeting Chinese officials and entities implicated in human rights abuses in Xinjiang, including the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and supported passage of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act. He also urged Congress to enact the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which established a rebuttable presumption that goods produced wholly or in part in Xinjiang are made with forced labor unless proven otherwise. According to The Wire China, Turkel's October 2019 testimony before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China "set off a chain of events" that eventually resulted in enactment of the UFLPA.

Turkel has also written and spoken on issues at the intersection of technology, national security, and U.S.–China strategic competition. His work has addressed artificial intelligence, export controls, digital authoritarianism, supply chain resilience, and emerging technologies. His policy commentary has appeared in The Wall Street Journal and Foreign Policy, and he authored the Hudson Institute policy memorandum AI, National Security, and the Global Technology Race: How US Export Controls Define the Future of Innovation.

Books

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.

Honors and recognition

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

Personal life

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

He married Turkish American interior designer Nazli Turkel in 2007. They live in the Washington, DC, area with their two children.

Selected publications

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "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. 1 2 3 4 "Nury Turkel". Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 Elana Schor (6 June 2020). "Q&A: Nury Turkel on Uighurs and new religious freedom post". Associated Press. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  6. 1 2 "Survivors of Religious Persecution at the 74th Session of the UN General Assembly". State Department. 22 September 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  7. ↑ "Nury Turkel, Commissioner". United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Archived from the original on 9 March 2024. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  8. ↑ Leigh Hartman (23 June 2020). "Once interned in China, Uyghur American fights for religious freedom". ShareAmerica. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  9. ↑ "The Nexus with Art Swift 027". Event occurs at 1:00.
  10. 1 2 Dolkun Isa (22 September 2020). "Nury Turkel". Time. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  11. 1 2 "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.
  12. 1 2 3 4 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.
  13. 1 2 Kenneth Bandler (17 August 2020). "The Uyghers' plight is a humanitarian crisis. More must be done to help". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  14. 1 2 3 "Nury Turkel, Commissioner". United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Archived from the original on 9 March 2024. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  15. ↑ "Nury Turkel". Hudson Institute. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  16. ↑ "Nury Turkel". Hudson Institute. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  17. ↑ "Nury Turkel Elected as Chair of Bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Abraham Cooper as Vice Chair". United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. 21 June 2022. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  18. ↑ "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.
  19. ↑ "Nury Turkel". Hudson Institute. 18 September 2026. Retrieved 29 September 2026.
  20. ↑ "Board of Directors". Uyghur Human Rights Project. 26 October 2026.
  21. ↑ "CPIFC Welcomes the Appointment of Mr. Nury Turkel to USCIRF". Citizen Power Initiatives for China. 27 May 2020. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  22. ↑ "Nury Turkel". Human Rights Foundation. Archived from the original on 21 July 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  23. ↑ "Forced Labor, Mass Internment, and Social Control in Xinjiang". Congressional-Executive Commission on China. 17 October 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  24. ↑ "Control of Religion in China Through Digital Authoritarianism". Congressional-Executive Commission on China. 13 September 2022. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  25. ↑ "Discrimination and Persecution Against Muslims Worldwide". Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. 30 June 2022. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  26. ↑ "The Chinese Communist Party's Ongoing Uyghur Genocide". U.S. House of Representatives. 23 March 2023. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  27. ↑ "Trade in America: Securing Supply Chains and Protecting the American Worker". U.S. House of Representatives. 9 May 2023. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  28. ↑ Richard Finney (20 July 2020). "US Sanctions 11 Chinese Firms for Human Rights Abuses in Xinjiang". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  29. ↑ Joshua Lipes (31 July 2020). "US Sanctions Key Paramilitary Group, Officials Over Abuses in China's Xinjiang Region". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  30. ↑ 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.
  31. ↑ Turkel, Nury; James W. Carr (26 August 2020). "Was Your Face Mask Made Using Forced Labor in China?". The Diplomat. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  32. ↑ Chen, Eliot; Northrop, Katrina (31 December 2023). "Washington's Xinjiang Fix". The Wire China. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  33. ↑ "Nury Turkel". Hudson Institute. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  34. ↑ Turkel, Nury (23 November 2025). "The First Large-Scale Cyberattack by AI". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  35. ↑ Turkel, Nury (7 May 2025). "US AI Leadership Needs Smarter Controls". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  36. ↑ Turkel, Nury (24 March 2025). "AI, National Security, and the Global Technology Race: How US Export Controls Define the Future of Innovation". Hudson Institute. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
  37. ↑ "The Moore Prize Past Winners". Christopher G. Moore Foundation. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  38. ↑ "Nury Turkel". Fortune Magazine. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  39. ↑ 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.
  40. ↑ 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.
  41. ↑ "HHRG-115-FA05-Bio-TurkelN-20180926.pdf" (PDF). Congress.gov. 26 September 2018. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  42. ↑ "Attorney Nury Turkel". www.chinafile.com. 5 April 2017. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
  43. ↑ "INTERPOL Red Notice Attorney". www.estlundlaw.com. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  44. ↑ 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.