Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 4 minutes. I might say that Turkey certainly has been a valuable ally of the United States for many years. As we all know, it is the only Muslim nation in NATO. It has been a vital partner to the United States in the war on terror in both Iraq and in Afghanistan. And just recently, Turkey agreed to host a NATO radar defense system directed toward Iran. Turkey also is becoming an increasingly important commercial partner. But I wanted to also point out, about 3 years ago, without any input from the U.S. Congress, the Secretary of State, or anyone else in the Federal Government, the director of religious affairs in Turkey on his own initiation had one of his religious scholars of the Muslim faith spend a semester at Wesley Theological Seminary here in Washington, D.C. During that semester, there was a dialogue between members of the Christian faith and members of the Muslim faith. And during that time, there was not any finger-pointing. There was no accusing the other side of being mean-spirited or anything else, but it was simply an exchange of ideas. That was at the initiative of the directorate of religious affairs in Turkey. I might also point out that in October, the archbishop of the Armenian Orthodox Church re-consecrated St. Giragos, an Armenian church near Lake Van in Turkey. That church has recently been renovated.…”