Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, 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 then 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. Turkey is, after all, a military ally of the United States, a member of NATO. As such, Turkey has received billions of dollars in military and economic assistance-courtesy of the American taxpayers. In addition, Turkey aspires to participate in other major Western organizations and institutions, such as the European Union.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that most Americans would be frankly appalled to know that a country that has received so much in the way of American largesse is guilty of so many breaches of international law and simple human decency. I have joined with many of my colleges in denouncing Turkey's illegal blockade of Armenia, its failure to acknowledge responsibility for the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923, its ongoing illegal occupation of Cyprus, and its threatening military maneuvers in the Aegean Sea. The brutal treatment of the more than 15 million Kurds living within Turkish borders offers a major argument for cutting back on military and economic aid to Turkey, or to at least attach very stringent conditions to the provision of this aid. If Turkey wants the benefit of inclusion in Western institutions that are supposed to be founded on the defense of democracy and human rights, then that country should start living up to the agreements it has signed.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say a few word on behalf of one of the most prominent victims of Turkey's cruel irrational anti-Kurd policies. Mrs. Leyla Zana was elected to a seat in the Turkish Parliament in 1991, representing her hometown of Diyarbakir. She was elected with 84 percent of the total vote. She became the first Kurd to break the ban on the Kurdish language in the Turkish Parliament, for which she was later tried and convicted. She had uttered the following words: "I am taking this[constitutional] oath for the brotherhood of the Turkish and Kurdish peoples."

On May 17, 1993, she and her colleagues Ahmet Turk addressed the Helsinki Commission of the United States Congress. This testimony was used against her in the court of law. On March 2,1994, her constitutional immunity as a member of Parliament was revoked, and she was arrested, taken in to the custody, tried, in a one-sided mockery of justice, convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Leyla Zana, who is 35 years old and the mother of two children, is in the third year of her 15-year sentence at a prison in Ankara, the Turkish Capital.

Leyla Zana's pursuit of democratic change by non-violent means was honored by the European Parliament, which unanimously awarded her the 1995 Sakharov Peace Prize. She has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. I know that some of my colleagues are circulating a letter to the President on her behalf, and I hope a majority of the members of this House will join with the European Parliament in defending the human and civil rights of this brave woman-and, I might remind my colleagues- a fellow Parliamentarian, a fellow-elected official. We owe her our moral support, and to urge our ambassador in Ankara to raise Mrs. Zana's case with the Turkish authorities at the highest levels.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to share with the Members of this Body, and anyone watching us, some of the basic goals of Mrs. Zana and of the repressed Kurdish people of Turkey: the Kurdish identity must be recognized; the use Kurdish language in conversation and in writing should be legalized; all cultural rights should be conceded; Kurdish political parties must be given full Constitutional rights; and A general amnesty for all political prisoners must be granted.

Mr. Speaker, we often hear-from our own administration, from other apologists for Turkey-about what a great democracy the Republic Of Turkey is. Yet this is how a duly elected representative of that so called democracy is being treated, for the crime of speaking her language and defending the rights of her people.

Mr. Speaker this can not go on. For many years we have witnessed a clear pro-Turkish tilt on the part of the State Department. We often hear about the strategic importance of Turkey, its pivotal location. I don't discount these arguments completely. But we have to balance these factors against some other very important considerations. Turkey continues to spend billions of dollars on obtaining sophisticated weapons systems, not only from the United States, but from France, Russia, and elsewhere. Much of this military hardware is than used to repress and terrorize the Kurdish people, citizens of Turkey who should be extended the protection of their country's armed forces, and not be victimized by those armed forces. Meanwhile, Turkey does not have a strong industrial base and is lacking in infrastructure in many key areas. Why is Turkey, our ally, throwing away so much of its limited resources on sophisticated weapons to use against its Kurdish residents, when it could be investing in better schools, health care and other services that could help put Turkey on a par with the Western nations it seeks to be associated with?

Mr. Speaker, last week I led a special order in this House commemorating the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923, committed by the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Just yesterday, I joined with members of the Armenian-American community for an observance of the anniversary of the unleashing of the Genocide. In recalling this well documented part of history, the existence of which Turkey continues to officially deny, we often point out that the importance of remembering the past is to prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future.

Mr. Speaker, we are currently witnessing a similar tragedy in Kurdistan. True, the Kurdish people have not been slaughtered on the scale that the Armenians were in the early part of this century. True, to some extend, the greater scrutiny that exists today-through satellite imaging and instantaneously communication-may be playing some role in restraining in the Turkish Government. But there is a certain similarity to the pattern: A concerted effort by a Turkish Government to wipe out the presence of a non-Turkish people which has lived in the region for centuries.

Mr. speaker, I would like to close my remarks with a statement from Lord Eric Avebury, the chairman of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group of the British Parliamentary Human Rights Group of the British House of Lords, who recently visited Turkish and Iraqi Kurdistan. He cited a quote, dating from AD 84, from the Roman historian Tacitus describing the Roman conquest of Britain: "Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appelant." They made it a desolation and called it peace."

Mr. Speaker, let us resolve not to let the entire land and nation of Kurdistan be made into a desolation.