Abduweli Ayup, a Uyghur language expert, writer, journalist, and linguist, was born in Kashgar in 1973. In 1997, he began studying at the Faculty of Turkic Languages at the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing. He later earned a master’s degree in Classical Uyghur Literature from Xinjiang University in 2001. He taught for nine years at Northwest Minzu University and Xinjiang University of Finance and Economics.
In May 2009, he traveled to the United States to study at the University of Kansas, where he completed a master’s degree in linguistics in 2011. After returning to his homeland that same year, he founded mother tongue kindergartens and language education centers in Urumqi and Kashgar. In August 2013, he was arrested by the Chinese government on charges of promoting separatism and sentenced to 15 months in prison.
In August 2015, he left China for Turkey, where he began documenting the stories of camp detainees and the broader situation of Uyghurs in exile. He translated information, lists, and other evidence about the Uyghur crisis into English and shared them with researchers, journalists, and human rights organizations.
In September 2016, he founded the Uyghuyar Foundation with colleagues, providing monthly and annual financial support to Uyghurs in the diaspora, especially those facing difficulties related to livelihood and education. He has written reports on imprisoned Uyghur imams, female religious scholars, and intellectuals.
Since January 2017, he has been instrumental in launching mother tongue schools for the Uyghur diaspora and has published educational materials, including nine children’s books, six collections of articles, and two books in Turkish.
Since September 2019, he has been living in Bergen, Norway, as a guest writer under the Aicorn program. In February 2023, he received the Distinguished Linguist Award from the American Language Research Society. On September 26, 2023, he was honored with the LinguaPax International Award. In May 2024, he received the International Language Rights Defenders Award. His English-language book, Black Earth, is set to be published soon.
