My first question to Nury Turkel is “How was your Thanksgiving?” It was the best Thanksgiving imaginable. He hosted his mother, whom he hadn’t seen in 20 years. For our podcast, our Q&A, go here.

Regular readers and listeners are well familiar with Nury Turkel. He is a Uyghur-American lawyer and human-rights activist. Our first Q&A was in 2018, when the broader world was first learning about the Chinese government’s mass persecution of the Uyghurs. Nury was appointed by Speaker Pelosi to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. In 2022, he published a book, No Escape: The True Story of China’s Genocide of the Uyghurs. That same year, his father died. Here is a picture of Nury with his father, Professor Ablikim Mömin:

Nury’s father and mother, Ayshem Mamut, had four sons. Two of them are U.S. citizens. One of them is a Turkish citizen. One of them is a Norwegian citizen. These are people whose lives have been “tempest toss’d,” to borrow from a beloved American poem. Nury, for his activism, is under sanction by both Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin — badges of honor.

Nury considers himself the luckiest of all Uyghurs. He was able to appeal to the highest U.S. authorities. He was able to tell them about his mother, who had never seen four of her grandchildren. President Biden raised the issue of Ayshem Mamut with Xi Jinping twice — most recently in Lima, on November 17. Secretary of State Blinken was involved in the case. So was our ambassador to China, R. Nicholas Burns. Nury refers to Burns as “our angel.” On Wednesday, November 27, Burns escorted Ayshem Mamut onto the plane in Beijing — the plane that would carry her to America.

Let me refer you to a fascinating report in the New York Times by Edward Wong: “Inside a Secret Plan to Bring Uyghurs Trapped in China to the United States.”

The plane touched down in Alaska for refueling, before going on to a military base in San Antonio. In Alaska, Nury’s mother talked with President Biden by phone. She does not know English. But she knows a few words. She said, “Mr. President, I am Nuri Turkel’s mother. So sorry, no English. Thank you.” But that was enough.

She has now met the four grandchildren she had never met. In our Q&A, Nury tells me that his daughter, age four, would not let go of her grandmother’s leg. Here is a photo of Ayshem Mamut with her two American sons Nury and Mamutjan:

In our podcast, Nury and I cover a range of issues, about his family and the fate of the Uyghurs generally. I would like to paraphrase something he said about his own situation:

For the last 20 years, it has felt as though I had a needle in my brain. I would go to bed worrying about my mom. Would I get a phone call in the middle of the night saying that she had disappeared? In the morning, I would think, Is she going to be okay today, while I’m at work? I always had this needle in my head. If I pulled it out, my head would bleed. If I moved the needle, my head would hurt. It was there for 20 years, and on Thursday morning, Thanksgiving, as we were getting ready for the day, it was gone. That acute sense of pain, which is really indescribable, was gone. I feel so light today.

Again, for this Q&A with Nury Turkel, go here.