YouSaid · the spoken record

Nury Turkel

lines on the record: 24
first: 2022-06-29
most recent: 2022-06-29
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“The put damn villages, and it's exactly the same thing as happening in China today. We can criticize this bad actor, that bad actor all day, but we have to ask ourselves, what have I done to stop it? What have I done to stop it at the governmental level, societal level, individual level?”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Is this the kind of society? Is this American even to begin with? What makes us different? It makes us different when we see this kind of wall act to speak up and stop it. So otherwise we're just complicit. I remind the listeners something very important that this regime that we tried to have a normal relationship with in Beijing developed a brain-controlled weaponry by its military Chinese military and medical academy and affiliates that the Biden administration added to the entity list last December. What does it tell you? This regime is already engaging in human re-engineering. The genocide does not have to be publicly recognized by perpetrators. Hitler did not invite cameramen and camera crew to let them record how he gasped millions of Jews. It doesn't work like that. He brought an international red cross to let them”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“At the end of the day, the governments can only do so much. So it's incumbent upon us, the consumers, the people who has a voice who can air their frustration. And those who are in power in the halls of U.S. Congress and in the executive branch, and those who sit in the corporate boardrooms making major business decisions to ask themselves one simple question, what kind of future do we want? Is this American to look the other way when we saw this kind of atrocities? What kind of society that we have become? Do we only speak up when it's politically inconvenient, when it's not costly in the case of Coca-Cola, criticizing Georgia on election laws, whereas sponsoring the Genocide Olympics this past February and lobbying against the Uyghur force labor prevention act and the business leaders like Shamas in Silicon Valley?”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Version of governance, repressive governance style, and digital authoritarianism. It's attempt to normalize modern-day slavery. I'm not going to suggest that I want this regime to continue, should continue to”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In a situation like the one that I have been living through, as my fellow Uyghur friends around the world, we have to be refused to be dehumanized. That is on a personal level a very strong weapon. And also, we have to be continue to feel hopeful. That hope that the normal aspect of human life is something that the perpetrators in the case of Uyghur genocide is intended to destroy. No one can take away the hope from, but I'm optimistic that even with the hope that we've been living, myself and my fellow Uyghurs around the world, I think the international community start to come around with the COVID, with now the supply chain crisis, and now the Chinese supporting Putin's invasion very suddenly. And the Chinese attempt to change international rules-based system and also exporting their own”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Giving interview to this American life recognizes his son in a TikTok video promotional video put out by the Chinese. And how can you be a normal human being and go about with your life knowing that your family members who were left behind may be subject to this home state program and your female relative have been subject to sexual harassment, violence, sexual violence at her place of residence in her own bedroom, in her own dining room. So these kind of things really, really take huge toll on you. I've seen it. I've heard it. I've communicated and I'm still continuing to comfort those people who are in a much more worse situation than I am.”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“which is the marking of the new year for Euro-Asian people. So there are a lot of things are happening. And I've seen thriving poetry, art, and also booming restaurant business as well to preserve the Uyghur cuisine. And the poetry, there's a lot of Uyghur writers and poets are currently serving. Jail time were disappeared into those camps. So I'm proud of the Uyghur community for its resilience, for its ability to keep it together. But at the same time, I'm worried that the well-being, specifically in the mental health aspect of the Uyghur community, let's be honest with each other. And how long can you hold up when you know that your children were forcibly removed from your wife or your husband and taken to the state run orphanages and you end up recognizing your missing children and a propaganda material as has been the case of this individual that I profiled in the book who was”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To those Uyghurs. Recently, the Washington area Uyghur community showed up at the National Mall holding the pictures of those part of the China police file, young children and grandmother showing that beautiful display of solidarity and support at nation's capital. That really resonated a lot of people. I mean, just looking at that image, I got chalked up. And then the other thing, remarkable thing that the Uyghur community is showing is resilience is two organized cultural events, public prayers to hold the community together. The Worldwide Uyghur community, I've heard that recently that they are organizing events in the occasion of coming religious holiday, the 8th, to display the cultural appreciation. And also every year during the Noruse, the entire Uyghur diaspora around the world organized Norrus celebrations.”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Have a handful of smaller eastern Central European countries speaking out. But where is Germany? Where's France? Where's the large, the big guys, a big country? So this disappointment, in light of the fact that there's a sizable European Uyghur population, it's so difficult. So the way that I've been advocating with the help of various Uyghur organizations to use the examples of some successful struggles, specifically the case of the Jews, they sacrificed 6 million of their own citizens to have a powerful presence around the world. They only not survive, but they're thriving community. So these kind of examples, it's not a perfect example, but it's a useful example to keep the Uyghur people in the one place. And the other thing that I think the community is doing great is to organize public events, to show solidarity.”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That I have to share the grievances. So the most difficult, challenging aspect of the Uyghur life today is to cope with a disappointment. We've been told never again, we've been told that the international community, specifically the UN that's set up under the UN Declaration of Human Rights to defend the rights of the people who have been subject to the circumstances as the Uyghurs have been. But there's no response from the UN. There's no single powerful statement. There's no emergency session set up, started, or a hold to discuss this issue. It's been six years. And then international community, I'm pleased to be in a country that my government speak on these issues in a bipartisan spirit, but where are the European countries that experience fascism, Hitler's Germany? And now communism.”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, I think that the Uyghur people are not well. You know, the way that the Uyghur people greet each other is essentially saying it means how are you? I am reluctant to ask that question because we're not well. Even in my case, how well can I be that I cannot be next to my mother holding her when she and I are grieving the loss of her husband and my father, how normal that can be if I wake up in the morning and start reading news about a particular family being broken and children taken and looking at those pictures recently released on BBC through the Xinjiang police file. So that's just, I'm just speaking for myself, but I cannot imagine those who don't have the type of access that I have, who don't have the type of contacts that I have, who don't have the type of platform.”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And seeing people start paying attention. So it's been extremely difficult process. But as I noted that it's been impactful”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Leaders and religious leaders, women and children in particular were the primate target from the Jewish and Roma community. Doesn't this remind you how talents Soviet Union treated Crimean Tatars, for example, during a migration, internal migrant, force migration, population reshuffling, locking up people who are opposing to the communist regime? So this is like a history repeating itself. So that was the time that I thought, okay, this is going really bad. So I start knocking on doors in House of U.S. Congress at the State Department with very little support. Initially, this was a very, very complicated, disappointing process. That changed a little bit after the UN Surge Committee chair. Gail McDougall challenged the world saying that China created no right zone locking up one million. And I started speaking in media and I start gaining”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Marry somebody from your own religious and ethnic group abstention from alcohol, tobacco, sex, keeping prayer mat at your house, keeping a religious books, past history of going to Hajj in Mecca, traveling 26 countries that includes Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Germany, all the stands in Central Asia, and your past writings. If you publish books, in a government-approved publishing house or if you performed in a government-owned theaters or sing songs that advocates Uyghur pride, that includes some government officials approved some textbooks for schools. Doesn't this remind you or brings the old memory back from the Nazi era that the Jewish thought leaders and businesses”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“From Japan, Dr. Pashblati disappeared on a broad daylight, and the crime was two-faced individual, meaning one type in public, one type in private. In private is the true yourself and the public is the fake. So essentially, you're not fully in line with party lines, party policies. So you're objectionable. So the large number of Uyghur intellectuals, thought leaders, religious figures, business leaders, stage performers, all start being disappeared. And then in 2017, this is a turning point right after Donald Trump becomes United U.S. president, causing up to Xi Jinping an enactment of something called de-extremification enacted by local legislative entity in Urumqi, the Uyghur capital, that essentially criminalize 48 behaviors. Think about this, like encouraging your children to”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“As you noted that I have been fortunate to be part of this work for more than 20 years now, but frankly, I never thought it will get this bad. I know that this has always been horrible, very brutal regime that afraid of its own citizens, afraid of free speech, free thought, creativity, a way of life that is different. But in the late 2016, early 2017, I felt after hearing the Uyghur individuals sharing news about the disappeared family members intensified pressure on my own parents, like forcing them to give a DNA samples, forcing them to go to the local police station to give a written statement every two weeks. And then I start hearing about the Uyghur thought leaders, academics, that includes the president of the Xinjiang University, who has PhD.”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Under the nose of the Chinese regime. And at the same time, you have this moral obligation, professional obligation, a personal obligation to be a voice to push for policy responses to stop this madness. At the end of the day, we all leave this world, but what gratifies me, what makes me feel self-assured is the fact that we have been impactful in our efforts to make a difference, but distressfully that we have not been able to stop the genocide, even though that genocide did in six years.”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But it bothers me so much that I have to look over my shoulder when I do something publicly calling the Chinese crimes or calling for strong action here at home and around the world to stop this ongoing genocide. And a natural thing comes like what would be the cost? Somebody just posted a video of my exchange with Senator Marco Rubio in a congressional hearing on forced labor issue in October 2019. The question was how my dough and I told him it is just too risky even to come to testify before the committee, congressional committee on modern day slavery. It could cause the lives of my parents, but it is impowering and fulfilling work to be voiced for millions of voiceless. That is how I keep myself carrying on this burden and this responsibility. It's tough. It's easy to say it, but when you have your mother, your family.”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Typical case book example of transnational repression that I have been subjected to. We feel that China has never over publicly say this. They retaliating against my work initially as a human rights activist, a lawyer and now U.S. government official. But they did sanction me last December in retaliation against my public human rights work advocacy work and at policy responses in Congress and US executive branch to stop the ongoing genocide. So this is another example of why I feel that I have never been escaped in American citizen and now US official and still have my mother despite our efforts to bring her to the United States to reunite with her children and meet her grandchildren. We have not been able to do it. So this is clearly a retaliation. And also I hate to say this.”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“One wish. I think the most people in free societies can appreciate that she was praying to God to live long enough to be able to attend my wedding. Not only that happened, but I have two U.S.-born daughter and son who have not met their grandparents. Several weeks before my father's passing, my son asked me looking at the picture from my law school graduation if I will ever introduce him to his grandparents. And I had no answer to that question. It has been a brutally excruciatingly difficult process for me in the past 27 plus years. I was only able to spend 11 months with my parents. The last time that I saw my mother was summer 2004 when she came here with my dad for my law school graduation. It's been 18 years. I haven't seen her. And I don't know if I will see her again. So this is it.”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I did not have a direct interaction with the Chinese here at home, but there were a number of phone calls, threatening phone calls, harassing phone calls. One of them was quite remarkable in a way that the Chinese trying to pressure even stopping my brother's marriage to somebody he was in love with. And the Chinese essentially had a problem with my future sister-in-law's mother, who was perceived as a state enemy to the Chinese government. So they made a harassing and threatening phone call while I was at my law office. And as they promised, they delivered a big retaliation, yanking away or confiscating my parents' passport, resulting my parents to miss my brother's wedding here in Washington, D.C. and my own wedding in Turkey the same year. When I was born in the camp and then were able to leave the camp with my mother, my mom had”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I need to note this. I lost my father about nine weeks ago while I was in the official trip to Uzbekistan. I was literally in an area which is in a similar distance between Washington, D.C. and New York comparing the distance between Tashkent and Nirvja. But I could not be there. I realized the last time that I saw my father in China, which was the August 1995, he took me to the airport to send me off to America.”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Bit about the US support of dissidents. And this country is an opportunity to advocate for the Uyghur people and others perhaps who are in a similar position. And then finally, you know, as somebody who was even born raised in the communist China, I never considered myself as a Chinese citizen. I thought that was something forcibly given to me. I always borrow the lines from late Congressman Tom Lentos to describe myself as an American by choice. I wanted to be free and I wanted to be able to explore opportunities. I wanted to work my dream. So both personal and political reasons, I chose to go to America. It was not an easy process. As I described in the book, it took me essentially a year to get my visa approved. And I left Beijing when my mother was in a hospital bed after being injured in a car crash.”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's a great question. People often ask me, you said you have not been escaped, but how did you leave? That's almost like a disconnect between the reality that I was living in and my desire to be free in the future. So the turning point really was the June 4th, Tennemon Square Massacre that the Chinese crushed. illegitimate demand expressed by students, thousands of students who were risking their lives. That was inspirational to me. After the crackdown, I thought, oh my God, this government is brutal. If they can do this to their own people for peacefully demanding democratic freedom in the heart of Beijing, risking their lives, risking their safety, then there's no hope in this country. And then to America, after the end of the Cold War, I thought that knowing a little bit”
2022-06-29 · Intelligence Squared · Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT