Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I have come to the floor every week for the past several months to draw attention to a matter that I think should be important to anybody who travels overseas, anybody who does missionary work, anybody who can go to a country and potentially get detained for false charges and imprisoned for nearly 2 years. I am talking about a Presbyterian minister from North Carolina who has been in Turkey for the better part of 20 years. He was a missionary that entire time. He created a church in Izmir and has lived there peacefully and lawfully for two decades.

In October of 2016, after the coup attempt--an illegal coup attempt, and the people responsible for it should actually have to answer to the Turkish justice system--they swept Pastor Brunson and thousands of other people into the Turkish justice system, and he has been in prison since 2016.

He was in prison for nearly 19 months before he was ever charged with anything. In fact, he lost 50 pounds over the course of about a year. He was in a cell that was designed for 8 people but had 21 people in it. I don't believe any of the others even spoke English. He was then transferred to another prison where he was kept in a cell with one other person, given virtually no access to the outside world.

He has experienced medical challenges, as anyone would expect when you are in prison without charges, and we found out the charges were bogus. That would weigh on you mentally.

We started working to try to first let Pastor Brunson know we knew about him and that I, as a Senator from North Carolina, cared about him. I cared enough to go to Turkey to visit him in prison several months ago. I told him I wanted to assure him face-to-face that as long as he is in prison, I will be working for his release. As a matter of fact, we have more than 70 Senators who have signed on to a letter who share my concern that he is illegally in prison.

What have we done? We actually put a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that holds Turkey accountable. They are a partner in developing the Joint Strike Fighter. It is a capability I sincerely hope someday Turkey may have. There is no way on Earth we should transfer that technology to Turkey as long as they are illegally imprisoning Pastor Brunson and others whom I will talk about shortly.

We did make some positive progress a few weeks ago. After he had been in prison for nearly 20 months, a little over, he was released on house arrest. At least he is now in his apartment near Izmir. He has an ankle bracelet on and is not allowed to go out of his house.

He has had several hearings. I actually attended one earlier in the spring. I was in that courtroom for almost 12 hours. I heard some of the most absurd claims you could ever allege as a basis for keeping somebody in prison overnight, let alone 2 years in October.

We are working with the administration, and I want to give the President a lot of credit for making this a priority. If you have read the newspapers recently, it would be hard for you not to hear about the Presbyterian minister, Pastor Brunson, and the difference of opinion between Turkey and the United States on what should be done.

When I talk to a lot of the Turkish officials, they say you have to respect our justice system; this has to play out, no matter how absurd the claims may be. Those are my words, not theirs. I wonder if they are sincere. Here is why. Several months ago, President Erdogan, the President of Turkey, made a public statement saying: How about this? We will give you your pastor if you give us our pastor?

There is a person living in the United States named Gulen, who they believe may have had something to do with the coup. We have an extradition treaty with Turkey.

We said: Honor the requirements of the extradition treaty, present credible evidence that Gulen is guilty of having conspired, and then we will let our process take its course.

Let me tell you what is interesting about making that offer in the context of the other elected officials, including Erdogan, saying: We have to let our legal process play out.

On the one hand, how can you say your hands are tied but on the other hand make a hostage swap request--or what they would consider to be a hostage swap request.

Maybe he just misspoke. Presidents do that from time to time.

Let's take a look at what we are dealing with now. A week ago, instead of offering Pastor Brunson for Mr. Gulen, now there is a new exchange on the table: If we drop a case against a Turkish bank, which has risen to our level of jurisprudence, the allegations against them are going to have to go through the legal process. Apparently, their judicial system does allow you to say: Well, if you drop that case in the gold standard for judicial systems--that is the U.S. judicial system--then, we will release Pastor Brunson.

Clearly, Turkey has the authority to release Pastor Brunson. Turkey has the authority to release a NASA scientist who happened to be visiting his family, who has been in prison for almost 3 years now, and has a 7-year sentence or another 4\1/2\ years ahead of him. They had the authority to release him. The only thing he seems to be guilty of is having been in Turkey visiting relatives when the coup attempt occurred.

They have the authority to release a DEA agent who they said was involved in the coup attempt. They have the authority to release a number of Turkish nationals who have worked with our Embassy for years. All they were doing was their job, and they were swept up, as thousands more have been.

Thank you again for the opportunity for me to come to the floor and make sure the American people understand what is at stake.

Turkey is a NATO ally. No NATO ally in the history of the alliance has ever illegally detained a citizen from one of their partner countries, but that is exactly what has happened here since October of 2016.

So I hope this is the last time I have to come to this floor to talk about releasing Pastor Brunson. I hope next week I am coming to the floor thanking the Turkish leadership for doing the right thing, thanking them for letting Pastor Brunson and his wife Norine come back to the United States, and advocating for a great relationship with Turkey as a NATO partner, which is very important. But none of that can happen as long as Pastor Brunson and the others that I have mentioned are illegally in prison.

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