Uyghur PEN Board Members
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Uyghur writer Omerjan Hasan has been arrested and his fate is unknown
Published by Uyghur PEN on 1st October 2016 Omerjan Hasan (ethnicity Uyghur, male, 51 years, Chinese citizen; name in Chinese: Wumei’erjiang Aishan – 吾买尔江.艾山, in Uyghur:Omerjan Hasan Bozqir) a well-known Uyghur writer, journalist and webmaster. He was formerly employed as a translator and vice director of the Forestry section of the Aksu Prefecture Forestry Department. He was arrested in around April 2016 according to the Washington-based Radio Free Asia Cantonese and Uyghur Services which first reported his arrest in July 2016. (1) In September 2016, friends of Omerjan Hasan contacted the WUC to say that they were very concerned about his current situation, and that since his arrest in April 2016, his family and friends had not been informed of his whereabouts, and there was still no announcement of official charges against him. According to the Radio Free Asia Cantonese news report and interview on 1st June 2016, an official announcement was published on the Aksu Prefectural Communist Party Disciplinary Committee website. The announcement stated that Omerjan Hasan had been expelled from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) because he had published articles which promoted an incorrect impression of the history of Xinjiang, endangering national and ethnic unity, and damaging the image of the CCP. Soon after this news was published on the Aksu government website, it spread to international news media, and the announcement was quickly removed. Subsequently the Radio Free Asia Uyghur Service conducted a telephone interview in Aksu covering Omerjan Hasan’s arrest. (2) Omerjan Hasan wrote and published many books and articles which aimed to promote equal civil and political rights for Uyghurs in China. He was well known to the Uyghur community by his pen name “Omerjan Hasan Bozqir”. He also had a good reputation in the wider Chinese-speaking sphere for his Chinese language articles. He was owner and webmaster […]
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Let’s write for freedom, let the “Wild pigeon” go free!
Aziz Isa ElkunSecretary of PEN International Uyghur Centrewww.azizisa.org/en ئەركىنلىك ئۈچۈن يازايلى، «ياۋا كەپتەر» ئەركىن پەرۋاز قىلسۇن * Presentation at “The First International Conference of Four-PEN Platform” held in Malmö City hall in Sweden on 28 August 2017. Dear ladies and gentlemen, friends and colleagues of the PEN, I am honoured to be here to speak on behalf of the Uyghur PEN Center and for the Uyghur people who are almost entirely denied freedom of expression by China in this digital era of the 21st century ! As we are writers, translators and intellectuals in many artistic and cultural fields gathered here to find common ground – the slogan ‘no enemies, no hatred’ is easily said, but in the current reality for Uyghurs in their homeland of East Turkestan (also known as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region), who are now suffering from unprecedented oppression and lack of rights, this is a hard goal to achieve. But the hate that separates us from each other – which may be based on race, religion or gender or other types of discrimination – will fail, because that hate is artificially bred by governments or other power holders to achieve their aims. The history of humanity always reminds us that tolerance and forgiveness are the only remedies that can achieve peace and prosperity for all of us in the global village. The author of the “Wild Pigeon” – Numuhammet Yasin – is still kept in a Chinese prison since 2004. I recently found an old newspaper dating back to 1992, in which our poems were published in the same column. But I am free and my colleague is in prison. I was at university in the same year as Ilham Tohti, and until few months before his arrest, we kept email exchange. Now he is sentenced […]
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Contact us
AZIZ ISA ELKUN President of Uyghur PEN CentreEmail: aziz.isaa@gmail.com Aziz Isa Elkun, a London-based Uyghur poet, writer, and academic, currently serves as President of the Uyghur PEN Centre. On April 16, 2025, the Centre held its general election at the Mir Publishing House in Almaty, Kazakhstan, with 24 members in attendance. During the election, Aziz Isa Elkun was unanimously elected as President, reflecting strong support for his leadership and his ongoing efforts to promote Uyghur literature, language, and freedom of expression.
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Milliy Musteqilliq Biz Uyghurlardin Yene Qanchilik Uzaqta?
Asiye Uyghur 1. Musteqilliqning shertliri we ré’alliqimizdiki mewjut mesililer Milliy musteqilliq bolsa her bir döletning allah ata qilghan hoquqi bolup , mustemlikichi döletlerning küchliri zor derijide ajizlighan 21-esirdimu yenila nurghun milletler öz dölitining musteqilliqi üchün tinimsiz köresh qiliwatidu. Elwette xelq’ara weziyet intayin murekkep we milliy musteqilliq heriketliri yenila nurghun döletlerning soda menpe’etige yandash bolsimu, emma bundaq ehwalning kélip chiqishimu kontrol qilish mumkin bolmaydighan ishlardur. Chünki dunya jama’iti bilen birge yashawatqan héchbir millet jama’et ichidiki ishlardin mustesna birer ishlarni wujutqa chiqiralmaydu. Undaqta biz yiraqni qoyup yéqinqi yeni ikki minginji yillardin kéyin musteqil bolghan döletlerge qarap baqayli: 1. Sherqiy timor démukratik jumhuriyiti, 16-esirdin bashlap portigaliye teripidin mustemlike qilin’ghan, kéyin gollandiye bilen birlikte mustemlike qilin’ghan dölet bolup, ikkinji dunya urushidin kéyin sherqiy timor portogaliyining bir ölkisi bolup qalghan. 1975-yili musteqilliq herikitini qozghighan we uzun yillar izchil köresh qilish dawamida 2002-yili musteqilliq élan qilghan we bashqa döletlerning birdek étirap qilishigha érishken. 2. Qara tagh jumhuriyiti. 19-esirdila musteqil dölet bolghan we étirap qilin’ghan bolsimu, lékin balqan ariligha jaylashqan bu dölet jughrapiyilik orni seweblik nurghun döletlerni “Bir Qismi”gha aylinip qalghan. 2-dunya urushidin kéyin yügüslawiye jumhuriyitining ittipaqdash dölitige aylinip qalghan. 90-yillardiki sowét ittipaqining parchilinishi bilen yuguslawiye ittipaqidiki nurghun döletler musteqilliq élan qilghan. Qara tagh bolsa 2006- 5-ayning 21-küni omum xelq awazgha qoyush arqiliq 5présenlik kichikkine üstünlük bilen musteqil bolghan we 6-ayning 3-küni 1-dunya urushidiki musteqil dölitini eslige keltürgen. Shu yili 6-ayning 28-küni b d t gha resmiy eza bolghan we dunya teripidin resmiy étirapqa érishken. 3. Jenubiy sudan jumhuriyiti. Afriqining sherqiy qismigha jaylashqan bu dölet sudan jumhuriyitidin ayrilip chiqqan bolup, 2011-yili 9-iyulda musteqilliq élan qilghan we afriqa chong quruqluqidiki 54-dölet bolghan shundaqla pütün dunyaning étirap qilishigha érishken. Bu dölet nöwette dunyadiki eng yash dölet hésablinidu. Yuqarqi üch döletning musteqil bolalishi bizge shuni ispatlap turuptiki, uyghur xelqi üchün musteqilliq peqet bir chüshla emes, belki tarixiy pursetlerge tolghan hazirqi […]
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The PEN Charter
PEN affirms that: Literature knows no frontiers and must remain common currency among people in spite of political or international upheavals. In all circumstances, and particularly in time of war, works of art, the patrimony of humanity at large, should be left untouched by national or political passion. Members of PEN should at all times use what influence they have in favour of good understanding and mutual respect between nations and people; they pledge themselves to do their utmost to dispel all hatreds and to champion the ideal of one humanity living in peace and equality in one world. PEN stands for the principle of unhampered transmission of thought within each nation and between all nations, and members pledge themselves to oppose any form of suppression of freedom of expression in the country and community to which they belong, as well as throughout the world wherever this is possible. PEN declares for a free press and opposes arbitrary censorship in time of peace. It believes that the necessary advance of the world towards a more highly organised political and economic order renders a free criticism of governments, administrations and institutions imperative. And since freedom implies voluntary restraint, members pledge themselves to oppose such evils of a free press as mendacious publication, deliberate falsehood and distortion of facts for political and personal ends. Where did our Charter come from?The Charter of PEN International has guided, unified and inspired its members for over 60 years. Its principles were implicit at the organisation’s founding in 1921. However, like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the PEN Charter was forged amidst the harsh realities of World War Two. It was approved at the 1948 PEN Congress in Copenhagen. Galsworthy’s inspirationPEN’s first president, the British novelist and playwright John Galsworthy, wrote the first three articles […]
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Women Writers
The Women Writers’ Committee was set up in 1991 to promote certain issues faced by women writers around the world – challenges at family and national levels such as unequal education, unequal access to resources and actual prohibition from writing. The committee reaches out to both aspiring and practising women writers through PEN Centres and other organisations and networks, and works with the Writers in Prison Committee on behalf of incarcerated or endangered women writers. Representatives from the committee attend meetings of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The committee has held conferences in countries such as Nepal, Kyrgyzstan and Senegal, and has published special newsletters. It uses Facebook to connect the work of women writers to the world. For more information or to get involved with the Women Writers Committee please contact: Zoe Rodriguez, Chair of the WWC – zoerodriguezconsulting@gmail.com For a history of the Women Writers Committee click here: Women Writers Committee _________________________________________ Free Chimengul Awut: https://cpj.org/data/people/chimengul-awut/index.php http://www.azizisa.org/en/tag/chimengul-awut/ PEN International
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