Aziz Isa Elkun

Uyghur poet and academic Aziz Isa Elkun gave an exclusive interview to the Crimean Tatar News Agency (Kırım Haber Ajansı) on 31 October 2025 (Full version of the interview in English).

Could you briefly introduce yourself? In your own words, who is Aziz Isa Elkun?

I am a Uyghur poet, author, and academic, born in Shayar County, in the heart of Uyghuristan (also known as East Turkistan, or officially the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China). I graduated from Urumchi University and later continued my studies at Birkbeck, University of London.

Since 2001, I have been living in exile in London. Among my fellow Uyghurs, I am known as a poet and writer devoted to preserving our language, culture, and identity. To the British public and the wider international community, I have become recognized as a cultural voice representing the Uyghur people- a nation facing systematic erasure in its homeland under the Chinese regime.

In addition to my literary work, I am an academic, human rights defender, and social justice activist who stands firmly against China’s ongoing genocide of the Uyghur people. Through my writing and research, I strive to safeguard the collective memory and spiritual heritage of my nation.

I am currently a researcher on the Maqam Beyond Nation project. Since April 2025, I have been serving as President of the Uyghur PEN Centre, and I am also a member of English PEN and PEN America. You can read my poetry, academic work, and other writings on my personal website: www.azizisa.org/en

You spent your childhood on the edge of the Taklamakan Desert. How did the silence of the steppe and the desert find its way into your poetry? How would you describe the imprint of your native land on your literary identity?

In my poetry, the Taklamakan Desert is my ink, and the sand becomes my verses. Without them, I could not write. They are the roots that no power on earth can uproot. My existence as a poet continues as long as the Taklamakan endures.

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Aziz Isa Elkun
Research affiliate, SOAS, University of London

The Chinese government said this was done in order to modernize us, but their true aim was to destroy Uyghur ethnic, cultural and religious identities. I felt as if my father’s body had been brutally torn out of its resting place in our ancestors’ land.

Over the past century, countries have used the tool of nationalism to pursue their own interests. Nationalism is about people, land and the relationship between them. Nationalist propaganda creates a special relationship between a unique people and a particular territory.

The Uyghurs are one of the many peoples who have been left out of this tidy calculation. We are labelled as an “ethnic minority” that suits Chinese version of statehood. China’s policies aim to cut our ties to our land. Uyghur pilgrims are cut off from their places of worship; villages are uprooted from their fields, and families are torn apart. Islam and Uyghur culture are none separated identities of the Uyghurs, therefor they regard the burial place – gravy yard as a holy place that connects the sprits of the generation past and today. Plus, Uyghur graveyard is a symbol of belonging to each other in the Uyghur community that keep connects Uyghurs spiritually, culturally and politically.

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Aziz Isa Elkun
Research affiliate, SOAS, University of London
ai18@soas.ac.uk  |  www.azizisa.org/en

After my recent interview with CNN about the destruction of my father’s tomb, Chinese Global Times and China Global Television Network specifically responded spreading fault information about the destruction of my father’s tomb by forcing my 78 years old mother to give an interview. The GT and CGTN claim that they respect Uyghur and other Muslim nationalities graveyards and burial traditions in East Turkistan (Xinjiang), but the claims made about me in the article are not correct.

They said: “Aziz Isa Elkun claimed he could not find his father’s grave, which was located in Xayar county in Aksu Prefecture, from a satellite image on Google. However, instead of checking with his family in Xinjiang, the Uygur poet opted to tell the media of his discovery.”

Let me clarify this:

My father worked for 40 years as a medical doctor for Shayar County, Toyboldi town hospital. He died on 4th November 2017. I heard about his death four days later through a friend. Soon before the end of 2017, all my telephone communication with my mother was cut off. I had no news about my mother and other relatives from our village for more than two years, when I learned from friends living outside the region that my mother was alive and that my sister had been detained in an interment camp for more than a year and a half. I still have no news of my other relatives. Thanks to this Global Times TV Network report I have now heard my mother’s voice for the first time since February 2017.

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