[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 144 (Tuesday, August 28, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5970-S5971]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



            Calling for the Release of Pastor Andrew Brunson

  Mr. President, now I would like to turn to another sad topic. It is a 
floor speech that I have had to give over the past few months and sadly 
may have to give over the next several months. It has to do with 
someone who has been in detention now for 690 days in the country of 
Turkey.
  In October 2016, this man was detained. He was held in a Turkish 
prison for almost 19 months, in a cell that was designed for 8 people--
it had 21 people in it. This man's name is Andrew Brunson. He is from 
Black Mountain, NC. He is a Presbyterian minister, and he spent the 
better part of 20 years in Turkey in a Christian ministry. He opened a 
church just outside of Izmir several years ago. It is a very small 
church. They had an open-door policy. Anyone could come in. He had been 
living there peacefully for 20 years.
  In 2016, there was a coup attempt that I still maintain was illegal. 
It was not the proper way to change government, whether in the United 
States or in Turkey. The people responsible for that coup should be 
held accountable to the law. Unfortunately, Pastor Brunson got swept up 
in the emergency actions that President Erdogan took after the coup 
attempt, and he was put in prison. He actually thought he was going 
down to finally get his permanent residency documents in Turkey, which 
he had been working on for a while, when he and his wife were arrested. 
His wife was held in prison for about 12 days. Pastor Brunson has been 
in prison and now detained under house arrest for what will be 2 years 
in October.
  The issue actually came to me as constituent work about a year and a 
half ago. We were doing everything we could to go through diplomatic 
channels to try to get Pastor Brunson released. Earlier this year, they 
finally--after about 19 months in prison without charges, they issued 
an indictment and read the indictment. It was absurd. I am not an 
attorney, but I couldn't even understand how--the charges they had 
levied against Pastor Brunson and the evidence they used to 
substantiate the charges I don't believe would keep you in jail in the 
United States overnight. Yet this man had already been held in prison 
for 19 months. I also heard that he was really concerned. His mental 
state was down. He lost 50 pounds over about a year and a half. I also 
heard through diplomatic channels that he was afraid that the American 
people would read these indictments, believe them, and then turn their 
backs on him. That is when I requested a trip to Turkey to visit him in 
a prison and look at him eye-to-eye and let him know that as long as I 
am a U.S. Senator, he will not be forgotten.
  About 6 weeks later, I went back, and I sat through 12 hours of his 
first hearing--12 hours in a Turkish courtroom. That convinced me that 
this man was being subjected to a kangaroo court. The legal system 
there is very different from our own. He has no jury. He is speaking 
before three judges and a prosecutor who sits up at the dais with the 
judges. They assume you are guilty unless you prove to them you are 
innocent. He testified for almost 6 hours that day. We heard from 
secret witnesses whose voices were scrambled--some of them are in 
prison--putting forth some of the most absurd charges or allegations 
you can imagine, but they are enough to keep him in prison.
  About a month ago, the Turkish Government did agree--or I should say 
their judiciary did agree to release him on house arrest. So for about 
the last month, he has been confined to an apartment he has near Izmir. 
He has a tracking bracelet on his ankle. As far as I am concerned, he 
is still in prison.
  For the past several months, I have been trying to do everything I 
could to show respect to the Turkish Government but make it clear that 
America will not stand for this kind of treatment of an American 
citizen, particularly from a country that is a NATO ally, a country 
that we have a treaty obligation to go and defend in a time of any sort 
of adversarial act. Let's say Russia or some other nation chooses to do 
something hostile to Turkey. We are obligated to send men and women 
onto Turkish soil to fight side by side for their freedom. Yet I have 
an American who has been charged with bogus charges in prison in a NATO 
ally country. This is the first time that has ever happened in the 
history of the alliance.
  When we talk to the people--the Foreign Minister, President Erdogan, 
and others--about this, they say: Well, we just have to have our 
judicial process follow its course. I don't believe that is true. As a 
matter of fact, I believe we have a President who is inclined to try 
and do a hostage swap. The reason I believe that is that after they 
said we have to let the judicial process follow its course, President 
Erdogan made this statement publicly--that they have someone here who 
they believe was involved in the coup attempt. We said to them, if they 
are and can prove it and if we have an extradition treaty, we will 
extradite that person. They haven't proven it. What they have said to 
the press is, If you give us our pastor, we will give you your pastor.

  Maybe it was just an offhanded comment that he regrets. Maybe he 
didn't really mean that he is willing to trade someone on U.S. soil for 
somebody on Turkish soil. Then why, just a few weeks ago, did the 
administration or administration officials say, ``Well, OK, if we can't 
trade a pastor for a pastor, then if you agree to drop a lawsuit that 
is against a major banking institution in Turkey, we will give you 
Pastor Brunson''? If, after two different examples, they haven't proven 
that

[[Page S5971]]

this is a hostage situation, I don't know what is.
  Over the past several months, we have had to put a provision in the 
National Defense Authorization Act to hold Turkey accountable. It 
relates to Pastor Brunson's imprisonment. It relates to their 
consideration for buying a Russian-made missile defense system that 
would never be allowed to interoperate with the NATO missile defense 
system. We have also told them that we may have to reconsider whether 
we would actually transfer Joint Strike Fighter F-35 planes to Turkey 
and the timeline they are supposed to go there, which would be at the 
end of 2020.
  I hope we get past all of this. I hope that measure in the National 
Defense Authorization Act is the last one I have to pursue here. Yet, 
as long as Pastor Brunson is imprisoned in Turkey, I will do everything 
I can to get the 72 Senators who signed the letter that expressed 
concern for Pastor Brunson--it is extraordinary to get that many 
Senators to agree on something in this body--to take it up another 
notch unless Pastor Brunson is set free.
  I hope, next week, I will come to this floor and thank Turkey for 
doing the right thing in releasing Pastor Brunson and in allowing his 
wife, Norine, to travel out of the country. I hope, next year or next 
week, I will be talking about the positive things we can do with the 
NATO allies to secure their homeland, to improve our trade agreements, 
and to actually have the relationship with that NATO ally that I want 
so badly to have. Until Pastor Brunson is released, there is no way on 
this Earth that I will do anything to make our relationship better.
  It is within President Erdogan's power to take this off the table 
today. I hope that President Erdogan and the Turkish officials hear our 
pleas. Show us, a NATO ally, the respect we deserve, and free Pastor 
Brunson.
  I yield the floor.

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