Turkel was born in a detention center in Kashgar (Kashi) during the Cultural Revolution. Turkel's grandfather had been associated with Uyghur nationalists and his mother was interned when she was six months pregnant. Turkel and his mother lived in the detention center for the first four months of his life. Turkel's father was a professor and his mother was a businesswoman. He completed his primary and middle school in his homeland. In 1991, he was admitted by Northwest A&F University in Shaanxi Province, China. In 1995, Turkel received his bachelor's degree and went to the United States for his higher education, never returning to China. He has a Master of Arts in International Relations and a Juris Doctor degree from American University.
