Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the disastrous undoing of democracy in Turkey and, specifically, the targeting and incarceration of those opposed to Turkish President Erdogan's ruling clique, especially anyone with any association to the Gulen movement as well as ethnic Kurdish leaders. Since an upheaval in July, President Erdogan has used emergency powers to arrest over 37,000 people and dismiss 100,000 other people from their government jobs. Lawmakers, Supreme Court judges, mayors, journalists, and approximately 14,000 doctors and teachers have been arrested or dismissed--many without due process. Newspapers and television channels critical of the Turkish Government have been shut down. Twitter and Facebook are filtered, while Internet connections are systematically interrupted. Human rights in Turkey are under severe attack, and the enemy is the Turkish people's own government. President Erdogan's administration is currently brutally oppressing anyone representing the Kurdish people in that country, including the Turkish political party HDP, which is involved in the democratic process. Perhaps the most bizarre is the repression of the Gulen movement in Turkey, and I would suggest that those people dedicated to education, benevolence, and respect for others should not be oppressed but should be looked at as friends of freedom everywhere. ____________________”