Frank Pallone: “I rise to join in this effort to focus more attention on the plight of the Kurdish people. I want to thank my colleague…”

“I rise to join in this effort to focus more attention on the plight of the Kurdish people. I want to thank my colleague from California, Mr. Filner, for taking this time to discuss the ongoing human tragedy in the mountains of Kurdistan. About half of the worldwide Kurdish community lives within the borders of the Republic of Turkey, where their treatment is an absolute affront to the basic fundamentals of human rights. At least one-quarter of the population of Turkey is Kurdish. Yet, in Turkey, the Kurds are subjected to a policy of forced assimilation, which is essentially written into the Turkish constitution. To date, 3,124 Kurdish villages have been destroyed, and more than 3 million of their residents have been forced to become refugees, either in Kurdistan or abroad. While the situation for the Kurdish people in such nations as Iraq, Iran, and Syria is also deplorable, I wish to draw particular attention to the situation in Turkey for some basic reasons.”