Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I know that the Presiding Officer has been present in the Chair a few times when I have given this speech. It is not a prepared speech. It is an update on a travesty of justice that is continuing in Turkey.

Today is October 4. On October 7, 2016, a man named Andrew Brunson, a Presbyterian minister from my State of North Carolina, up near Black Mountain, was arrested by Turkish authorities.

Pastor Brunson has been a missionary in Turkey for about 20 years. In 2016, there was an illegal coup attempt. The people associated with it should go to prison because there should not be violent changes of power in nations. They have an election process, and they should honor it. I have no problem when there is evidence of people who have been associated with an illegal coup going to prison, but I have a real problem with a man who for the last 2 years has been in a Turkish prison and went 19 months without an indictment. He was held without charges for 19 months. Over the last couple of months, we finally got him into house arrest.

Then they put together an indictment that is truly something that I don't think could keep someone in an American jail overnight. I read it and felt so strongly about it that I decided to go to Turkey and be in the courtroom for 16 hours when he sat through his nearly 12-hour hearing.

I was in that courtroom for the whole time, a courtroom just outside of Izmir. It was the second time I was there. I was there 2 months earlier to visit him in prison and to let him know that the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Congress knows he is there and we are not going to forget him. We had nearly 70 Senators sign on to a letter to that effect.

The reason I do this speech is to remind the American people about Pastor Brunson and to remind them about other Americans and Turkish- Americans who are in prison, suggesting that they were a part of trying to overthrow President Erdogan's government.

It will be 2 years on the 7th of this month. That is 727 days that he has been held in prison.

But what I want to talk about is kind of related to a subject we are discussing on the floor in another matter, and that is unsubstantiated allegations. This man has over 11 unsubstantiated allegations. What does that mean?

Somebody says: I saw somebody do this.

Yet they produce nobody else that can actually corroborate it, in other words, saying: Yes, I remember that happening; I agree with that testimony.

There were 11 different allegations. Many of the people who testified wouldn't even show their faces. They were on a video screen with digital blocking and with their voices hidden. Some of them we now know are in Turkish prisons themselves.

None of the allegations have been corroborated by a single person. Yet this American, this man who was bringing the word of God to the people who wanted to hear it--he wasn't forcing it on them; he was asking them into the church if they wanted to sit through a service on a Sunday or during the week--was put in prison. He was put in prison for allegations.

One person who is also in prison said that one night they saw a light on up in the upstairs part of this very small church. It only fits about 100 people, and there is a little office upstairs. There was a light on for 4 hours, and, therefore, something bad must have been happening in there.

There is another real problem with that allegation. It turns out that when I went to Izmir and to that church, there is no window in that upstairs room. Yet that is an unsubstantiated allegation that has landed this man in prison and subjected him to a possible 35-year prison sentence in Turkey.

Another was a media post by his daughter, who ate a meal that the Turkish authorities said is a meal that is commonly eaten by terrorist organizations and so, therefore, she must be associated with that organization. That is the level of the allegation. In fact, it is one the more popular dishes enjoyed by many people--Kurds, Turks, and a number of people in the Middle East--but those are the unsubstantiated allegations that have kept this man in prison for 2 years and could potentially keep him in prison for 35 years.

He is coming up on his final court date, where they will either release him or imprison him.

I want to thank President Trump for making this a priority. I want to thank Secretary of State Pompeo for making this a priority. I want to thank my colleagues, including the Presiding Officer, who voted on a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that says: Turkey, if you go down this path, there will be consequences. If you go down this path, you may not see the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter ever on Turkish territory. We may have to rethink the supply chain that runs through Turkey to build the F-35. We may actually have to take additional measures.

I am watching them. Right now, I am trying to show them respect and hope that they do the right thing, but I want Pastor Brunson and his wife Norine and all of the people who belong to his church--the same church that the Reverend Billy Graham was associated with--to know that if justice is not served, then, we will continue to put the pressure on Turkey in any way that I can for as long as I am a U.S. Senator.

Tonight I would just ask anybody watching this on C-Span and all of my colleagues to just pray for Pastor Brunson, to pray for his release. I hope that I don't have to come to you for additional support to remind Turkey that our American justice system would never put a Turkish person in prison and our NATO ally should understand that we want him treated with respect and their very strong partner, the United States of America, treated with respect.

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