Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018

Floor Speech

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Mr. TILLIS. Madam President, I am doing something this week I wish I didn't have to do. As a matter of fact, for the past several weeks I wish I didn't have to do this, but I have to draw attention to something that is very important to me and should be important to everybody in the United States and every person on Capitol Hill. It is about a man who has been held in prison in Turkey for 628 days, most of that time without charges, in a cell that was designed for 8 people that had 21 people in it. This man's name is Pastor Brunson. He is a Presbyterian minister who has spent most of the last 20 years doing missionary work in Turkey, sometimes going into Syria, visiting Syrian refugee camps in Turkey, living in and around the Izmir area.

In October of 2016, after the coup attempt, President Erdogan started sweeping up thousands of people, including people who were doing nothing but trying to bring the Word to those who wanted to hear it--in this case, in the country of Turkey. He was actually accused of being a part of plotting the coup attempt. He subsequently has been accused of plotting terrorist activities against the people and the Government of Turkey.

We have been working on this case for well over a year. We treated it like constituent work. We were doing everything we were supposed to do, working with the State Department, working with the various agencies, reaching out to the country team to ask: Why can't we get this pastor free? Why is he being held without charges? How could a Presbyterian missionary--how could he possibly be considered a terrorist or a coup plotter?

About 4 months ago, I was in a meeting, and I overheard--this is about the time he was indicted, about 17 months of being held without charges. I heard he was afraid that after the indictment was released, the American people would believe the indictment and just turn their backs on him and forget him.

So it was important for me to go to Turkey. I requested a visa to get to Turkey. I went to the Turkish prison, and I told Pastor Brunson that is the last thing that is going to happen. I told him he had my personal commitment and that I knew I had the backing of the majority of the Members of the Senate and almost 200 Members of the House now who believe Pastor Brunson needs to be set free. It was important to tell him that face-to-face.

About a month later, I went to his first court hearing. It was absurd. I spent about 12 hours in a Turkish courtroom hearing some of the most extraordinary--almost comedic--allegations against Pastor Brunson. Every week I vary the presentation of the allegations because there are so many you can't cover them in any one reasonable length of floor speech. So this week's absurd allegation is this notion that the Turkish prosecutors believe all the Christian religions in the United States are actually somehow woven together as some sort of intelligence-gathering, coup-plotting, terrorist-plotting network throughout the world to collect information and use it to the detriment of a sovereign nation like Turkey. That is the sort of--so he is an operative. He is a man who actually comes from Black Mountain, who is affiliated with the same church as Rev. Billy Graham, and has been, for 20 years, plotting the overthrow of the Turkish Government.

Now, keep in mind, it is only a concept. He hasn't been charged with any specific activity. There is no witness attesting to some specific thing that he did, but because he is a Christian, because he is a missionary, and because he has been in Turkey for 20 years, he has to be a part of this organization. Therefore, we are going to put him in prison for 628 days. That is what we are dealing with.

Now, when we started down this path, I spoke with a lot of Turkish officials. What I heard from them is, well, justice has to take its course. We have an independent judiciary; justice has to take its course. Then, not too long ago, President Erdogan, who was just recently reelected President for, I believe, another 5-year term, had the audacity to say: ``We will give you your pastor if you give us our pastor.''

Well, it turns out there is someone here in the United States who was previously an ally of President Erdogan. They had a falling out, and he is a part of a movement that wants to see change in Turkey. He is a man of faith--a man of Muslim faith.

The President transformed what I believe started out being a situation of let's just let the independent judiciary take its course-- they transformed what was an illegal detainment, lengthy detainment of a Presbyterian pastor into what I believe is a hostage swap.

The President said this. If the President could actually make this offer, then, clearly, he is not constrained by a judiciary outcome like we are in the United States.

So the day President Erdogan said this, that was the day we could clearly say Pastor Brunson is being held as a political hostage, and the President--President Erdogan--has the power to end it.

I do this speech every week, and I will do it every week for as long as Pastor Brunson is in prison. Every once in a while my mother or my wife will see a videotape of this speech, and they always say: Why do you act like you get so angry toward the end of it? Because I am. I am angry for a lot of reasons. One of them is that they are a NATO ally.

Since 1952, Turkey has been a member of the NATO Alliance. At the most profound level, that means that if Turkey is attacked by another Nation and their safety, security, and freedom is at risk, then the United States has an obligation to submit our men and women in uniform to the country of Turkey to potentially lay down and die in defense of their freedom. That is what we call a partnership. Now, for the first time in the history of NATO alliance, they are holding an American hostage.

So, on the one hand, in the Armed Services Committee where we spend a lot of time focusing on our alliances, a lot of time training with various countries--and Turkey is one I would like to have a great relationship with--but they are holding a North Carolinian hostage. They are subjecting him to a kangaroo court, and they think it is OK. For the first time in the history of an alliance, for a NATO alliance partner to behave this way is unacceptable.

So we have taken all the steps we could diplomatically, and it hasn't worked to this point. Now we have to take additional steps, and one of those steps is to put a provision in the national defense authorization bill that asks certain questions about the long-term nature of our relationship with Turkey. Turkey is a very important ally in the Middle East. I hope that someday I come down to the floor gushing over all the great relationships we have. We have many. Their work in Afghanistan is important. Their work and fighting in Syria is important. But what is more important than anything is the freedom of a man who is held in prison and respect for a fellow NATO ally.

So we have put a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that asks certain questions, like, does Turkey have somebody illegally detained, yes or no? And our President can certify one way or the other. Does the fact that Turkey is considering the acquisition of the S-400 missile system from Russia, which comes with it a lot of intelligence gathering and other tools that could put the safety and security of the Air Force base that we have in Turkey and the manufacturing operations for the Joint Strike Fighter in Turkey at risk--certify one way or the other.

Incidentally, because we rely on Turkey for the supply chain for the Joint Strike Fighter and if that supply chain were to shut down, if Turkey continued to drift further away as a NATO ally--does it make sense to have the entire manufacturing supply chain of the Joint Strike Fighter dependent on a country that is drifting away from the nations that are members of NATO?

Those are simple provisions. We are asking the President of the United States to certify one way or the other. If he can't certify it, then we have to really start questioning just how much further we can go with a country that is holding an American citizen, with a country that is considering a would-be adversary's missile defense system, and with a country that is a critical link in the supply chain for the Joint Strike Fighter.

We will be going into conference fairly soon on the national defense authorization. I am asking all of my colleagues--the 70 who signed on to a letter expressing their concern with the detainment of Pastor Brunson--to stick with us to make sure that provision makes it out of conference and that we hold Turkey accountable.

It is within President Erdogan's power to end this now. I would love to come back to the floor next week and not be talking about the illegal detainment but talking about a freed man and an improving relationship with Turkey.

My last message is to the Turkish people. This is not about the Turkish people. They are wonderful people. I have traveled to Turkey several times in various official capacities. They are wonderful people who love freedom and want freedom just like we have in the United States. This is about an administration that needs to understand what it means to be a NATO ally. It is about an administration that needs to understand what a real, independent judiciary looks like. It is about an administration that needs to be put on notice until they take the positive step in that direction.

Madam President, thank you very much. I hope I don't have to come to the floor next week when you are presiding and present this same speech, but I promise you, as long as I am a Senator and Pastor Brunson is in prison, I will be back.

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