Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I thank Senator Tillis and the Presiding Officer for acknowledging our time to have this conversation. This is a serious conversation because this is a NATO ally.

Dr. Andrew Brunson has been in Turkey 24 years. For 23 of these years, he served as a pastor in humanitarian work. He took care of providing food and clothing and pastoral ministry for anyone who would come, just like anyone does.

That has not been an issue in Turkey for decades because Turkey has been very open to all faiths, all religions, and they have prided themselves on being a nation that recognizes all faiths, all backgrounds, and all religions and ethnicity. At least that was the old Turkey. Literally, under Dr. Brunson's feet, Turkey shifted from where they were to where we don't recognize them anymore as a NATO ally.

In October of 2016, Dr. Brunson was called by the police department there. Assuming it was an immigration issue, he and his wife went because they had gone multiple times to the police department to renew their visa and keep everything up to date. They had a great relationship with the local police department, with local individuals, and with all the authorities in the area because they had been there for two decades and had developed great friendships.

So they went to check in, but this time, instead just checking in again for an immigration issue, they took them into custody, without any charges, and held them for a year--with no charges--then, eventually, presented these trumped-up charges which they have laid out that are absolutely absurd.

How a Christian minister is somehow cooperating with a Muslim in a coup in Turkey is absurd on its face. All of the crazy accusations from secret witnesses who would appear by video with their faces blurred out, making accusations that they had seen or they had heard--allowing no one to actually ask them questions is absurd. Just as absurd is not allowing Dr. Brunson to bring any witnesses in his defense.

There have now been two hearings that have been just this style: Dr. Brunson not allowed to bring anyone to speak on his behalf; all of these trumped-up witnesses who come with blurred-out faces--this secret testimony that they can present--to come back and present something they would consider evidence that we would never allow in any court, and, quite frankly, no one would take seriously these accusations.

In 2016, after Dr. Brunson had been in jail for a few weeks, I went to Turkey and visited with the Minister of Justice there. The Minister of Justice at that time said: We have some information. We are going to work this out. We are going to allow the process to go through the court system, but we will rapidly go through this process. Now, a year and a half later, we are finding out there never was any evidence, there never was any issue--and we are still dealing with an American being held hostage by a NATO ally.

I thought I would never say this sentence, but I would like to see Turkey follow the example of North Korea and release the American hostages they are holding. Now, when Turkey--a NATO ally--is behind North Korea in how they are handling humanitarian issues, Turkey has moved to a very bad spot. It is not a place they need to stay.

Turkey has been a friend and an ally--we work together against terrorism; we work together on economics--but I join Senator Tillis in the statement he just made: I discourage anyone I speak to, to do any business in Turkey or to travel to Turkey at this point. If you are doing business in Turkey, you cannot guarantee the safety of your employees any longer; if you are traveling to Turkey, you cannot be guaranteed safety anymore. Because of the emergency powers that are currently being used in their legal system, they can sweep up anyone for any accusation and hold them for any length of time. That is not just theory; that is being proven by a pastor being held for a year and a half in Turkey with false charges. I highly recommend no one does business in Turkey at this moment, just for the safety of your employees and the people you would work with.

Now, Turkey has not just done this. They have also turned toward Russia, pursuing Russia for their air defense systems. As a NATO ally, that is unheard of, to say they are going to have NATO equipment, but then they are also going to go to Russia. That shows the turning of President Erdogan and the leadership of the country.

Congress is not going to just sit back on this and should not. Senator Shaheen and I have already put language out for the foreign ops bill in Appropriations which would specifically identify those individuals--the judges in the court, the officials who are holding Pastor Brunson, the officials in the city jail and in their national government who are specifically holding those individuals--to apply sanctions directly to the individuals who are holding an American pastor hostage.

Senator Shaheen, Senator Tillis, and I have already put forward a piece of legislation blocking Turkey from maintaining or purchasing the F-35. They are a NATO ally, and they should have access to that, but they are not acting like a NATO ally. We don't know where they are going, and it would be a mistake for the United States to give our best technology--somewhere that we don't know where it is going to go and how it is going to be used in the future.

Just this week, the House released their National Defense Authorization Act. In the base text of the NDAA coming from the House is a provision which would block all defense sales to Turkey until we get more information about what is happening in the future and what direction Turkey is going. That is a reasonable precaution to take in a nation that is rapidly shifting away from democracy, a free court, free speech, and freedom of religion. They are losing humanitarian values. We should address that and respond to that, and we are.

It is not just what we might do; it is what we are doing currently to try to respond to this issue. The State Department continues to apply diplomatic pressure, but we have moved past the time when diplomatic pressure needs to be applied. It is time to apply economic pressure and pressure on how our partnership will work long term.

We want our ally back--the Turkey we used to know, that we cooperated with, and maintained a long-term friendship with. We would love to maintain that long-term friendship with an ally that has strongly stood with us, and we have stood with them, but we do not recognize what Turkey is anymore.

A good first step with them would be to follow the lead of North Korea and release our hostages out of their jails.

Mr. President, I yield back.

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