Nury Turkel is a United States-based Uyghur activist and attorney. Born in a prison camp in the Uyghur Region of China, Turkel is a vocal critic of the Chinese systematic oppression of Uyghurs. He is the former president of the Uyghur American Association (UAA), a prominent nonprofit established by Uyghur exiles in the US, and served as the executive director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP). He has ardently urged international action against China’s tyranny against the Uyghurs through various forums, including the US Congress in 2019. He is commissioner of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, senior fellow at the Washington-based think-tank the Hudson Institute, and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the first US-educated Uyghur lawyer and the first Uyghur American to hold a political office in the US. In 2020, he was included among Time’s 100 most influential people in the world list.
