Gus Bilirakis: “I rise today to voice my fierce opposition to the sale of 145 Bell-Textron attack helicopters to Turkey, as planned by…”

“I rise today to voice my fierce opposition to the sale of 145 Bell-Textron attack helicopters to Turkey, as planned by the administration. First and foremost, there is simply no need to proceed with this sale. Turkey is already the most militarized state in that region, and it has the second largest army in NATO after the United States. Despite these facts, Turkey plans to spend $150 billion over the next 25 to 30 years on military weapons; and it plans to implement the first $31 billion phase in the next 10 years. This money could be better used to build schools, hospitals, or housing for the victims of last year's destructive earthquake. Mr. Speaker, the list is endless. Previous experience leaves no room for any optimism regarding legitimate use of such weaponry by Turkey. Quite the contrary, the record shows that the Turkish military has consistently failed to distinguish between civilian and military targets. For the last 16 years, the Turkish military has been using American weaponry, most notably attack helicopters, to kill more than 30,000 civilians, destroy over 2,000 ethnic Kurdish villages and displace more than 2 rac{1}{2} million ethnic Kurds.”