Changing the constitution, he transitioned himself from a president dually elected and operating free democracy that had been turkey radically changing the country and its future. A longterm nato ally, its going through real turmoil. In act, that coup happened and all the transitions occurring. But by december, as i mentioned before, theyre rocked again. December the 17th, 2016, a bus was stopped at a red light near a campus in turkey when a car bomb explodes killing members of turkeys military. 13 people were killed, 55 were wounded in that blast. 48 of those killed and wounded were offduty military personnel, most of them privates and caporales. The same day in another location in a different part of that community, its still in turkey, there was a soccer stadium it attack that happened. In that attack, 44 people died and more than 150 people were wounded. Three days later, actually two days after that, december the 19th, 2016 the Russian Ambassador to turkey was assassinated in ankara while he was giving a public speech. Most americans dont know this because we were getting ready for christmas and we were watching the transition of president obama to President Trump. There was a lot of chaos in the region at that time. I happened to be in turkey when all of that was going on, meeting with turkish officials, trying to negotiate for the release of andrew brunson. Working towards our ongoing relationship and trying to figure out what direction turkey was going to go because they had been a longstanding ally to the United States and a nato partner, but they certainly were not acting like it in 2016 and now in 2019, they are certainly not acting like it. The car bombs that i mentioned, and the terror attacks that happened might surprise some americans to know, they were nt led by isis fighters fighting in turkey. The incidents that were killed that day were killed by kurdish terrorists. Kurdish folks, the Kurdistan Workers Party known as pkk, the abbreviation in that language. Pkk has been listed as a terrorist organization by the United States for decades. Let me give some context though because in the course of the dialog that ive heard over the last couple of weeks about the kurds and about the turks, everyone seems to want to oversimplify this issue. Everyone wants to say, good guys, bad guys. And theyre missing the point in the history of what he is happened in that region. The kurds have about 25 Million People in their people groups, the fourth largest people group in the middle east. They live mostly in turkey, iraq, syria, iran and armenia. They have all different political parties, they have all different backgrounds. For over a century, theyve worked to have their own national. And interestingly enough after world war i and the map changes in warorld war i, theyve worke for and had pressed for their own country during that time period. But when the boundaries were drawn at the end of world war i after they had been promised they would have their own homeland, they were instead a larger turkey was drawn and the kurds were just listed as a Minority Group inside of turkey. They faced incredible persecution within turkey. Theyre not allowed to be able to call themselves kurds. Instead, theyre called mountain turks in that area. Theyre not allowed to wear certain garb, not allowed to practice their custom. Theyre pressed in every area and theyve worked for a long time to say, how can we have a free peoples area. The kurds that live in Northern Iraq, its one of the freest areas in all of the middle east. They have freedom of religion. They have a free capitalist economy thats there, thats a thriving economy in Northern Iraq. They have democraticallywill he had led elections. They have an overthrow of Saddam Hussein after Saddam Hussein gassed thousands of turks to to death in the curdish region. Interestingly in you have in 2017, they had the referendum to establish their own place and took a bold move to say the world will not acknowledge us, we will acknowledge ourselves. In a bold referendum in 2017, the kurds voted 90 to form their own country out of Northern Iraq. And quickly they moved into that zone and squashed them. In the middle of the conflict that weve talked about before with isis, isis moved into areas in syria and into iraq and pressed in against the kurds to be able to attack them. And what the kurds were not able to do to be able to establish their homeland isis was determined to establish their own caliphate and land by beheading people and by murdering thousands of people and as they moved into the kurdish area, the turks on the other side of the border simply watched the refugees flee across the border because isis was not killing turks, they were killing kurds and they didnt care. They would handle the refugees as long as isis was doing their bidding in syria. You see, this is a complicated issue for us. Because there are sections of the kurds that have fought for democracy for decades. Many of them doing it exactly the right way, having referendums, organizing, working with u. N. Officials, working with the countries around them democratically establishing an area where they would be free to live and to worship and to be able to function in a capitalist economy. Thats been their desire, but theres also been an off shoot of the kurds called the pkk that have now for decades carried out car bombs and attacks, many of them in turkey where hundreds of civilians have been killed. President erdogan of turkey determined that all kurds are the same and he ruthlessly lashes out on them. Now i think how we operated in afghanistan and how different the United States thinks about military warfare. As the taliban and Al Qaeda Rose up in afghanistan we engaged in the most surgical way we could possibly do it to be able to engage with violent taliban members. And with members of al qaeda to be able to take the battles to them while establishing a friendship and a Longstanding Partnership with the afghan people. We dont look at all the afghans the same in some blanket declaration. We understand theres a violent faction that has to be addressed for world peace about you there are others that just want their children to grow up and go to school. Weve engaged them in a way thats very different how turkey is currently engaging with the kurdish population. Everyone knew, everyone knew as the battle raged in syria, that when the battle finished out with the civil war in syria and the fight with isis, often the kurdish area, everyone knew when this calmed down at some future date, the turks would start coming off the kurds. Its been known for years. In fact, in 2016 when i was in turkey in ankara at that point in th watching that occur, thats the dialog, we are going to come after the kurds. This has been the repetitive statement over and over and over again, to the administration, and quite frankly, to the previous administration. And a series of phone calls with president erdogan talked to President Trump and says, we are crossing the border and coming in, and left President Trump in a very difficult situation. Does he leave our american men and women in a very small number, in a Forward Operating base to sit there while the battle rages between the kurds and the turks . Do we use them as some kind of tool to try to be able to stop this . Or do we get out of harms way . Secretary esper just made a Statement Last weekend that was very clear. The turks didnt ask permission to cross the border, they said were coming. And notified us in advance, so if we want today wanted to move out of the way we could, but either way, they were coming. Weve moved our forces into other areas and combined them into bases and recently within the last couple of days, when the turks started getting closer to our combined forces in syria we responded putting up Apache Helicopter and f16 a he is, saying dont you ka dare come near american courses. But at the same time were doing everything we can and should to stop the bloodshed between the al lies. Ive been amazed at the number of people who have stepped up and said President Trump is to blame for the bloodshed between the kurds and the turks. They ignore the history in the ongoing battle between the kurds and the turks now for over a century, but we should do everything we can to be able to push back on this. Because for a large group of the kurdish population, especially those in Northern Iraq, they have been very close allies and friends and tenacious fighters against Saddam Hussein and they left their own place of safety in Northern Iraq to come help us fight the fight in syria, to be able to protect the kurdish people, yes, but to also help the entire world from the ruthless nature of isis. We should engage to be able to do what we can to help stop the bloodshed. As i mentioned before when we moved into afghanistan we did it as surgical as we can. When turkey moved into kurdish regions, they unleashed artillery fire against civilians. Pummelling homes and businesses in kurdish towns that meant them no harm, as they crossed the border into syria. So, what do we do . How do we respond in the days ahead . Well, a few things that i would bring up. One is, the what i wish. I wish the administration had been more clear with turkey and her leaders, to say, if you do this, here is not that we will do sanctions, here is exactly what the sanctions will be and you know it and its going to happen as rapidly as possible. I wish that we would have moved the isis fighters out of the region because there are isis fighters that are currently in prisons in northern syria, waiting to return back to their home countries because many of them are foreign fighters from other places that the home country is not willing to take them back. So theyre imprisoned in syria. I wish we would have done more before the turks crossed the border to be able to protect the prisoners and make sure they didnt get free, but many of them did get free, and the entire region will suffer the consequences of very bad actors getting back on the battlefield again because of that. I wish there had actually been coordination. The administration clearly did not coordinate with the state department, with the department of defense, with what was happening in the region, with other kurdish leaders to be able to make sure we were securing those fighters and preparing for that moment. Instead, it was a rapid transition in a hurried process to be able to move americans out of harms way in between two allies that were now fighting each other. And to try to shift them to other places and to be able to stabilize in those locations. So, out of hurried response that could have been done different, but was not. The now what is pretty clear. President trump has launched out and stated very clearly there will be strong sanctions, beginning on military Leaders Within the turkish army. The key leaders in the government and try to put sanctions down as rapidly as possible on those individuals and hes also announced a 50 field tariff on turkey and you may say thats no big deal except for the fact that steel is a major export for turkey. And its a punishing tariff on them as a country. Hes also started laying down additional sanctions on turkey and said all the trade agreements and conversations are currently at a standstill. Turkeys economy is on the razors edge because of the way that erdogan has mismanaged their economy. We have no beef with the turkish people, but turkey is led by a leader that is leading their country that economic ruin and leading their military across foreign borders to be able to haphazardly kill civilians. We should not tolerate that. And we should engage. We should make it very clear that there will be consequences. We should work with the u. N. As we already have started to be more aggressive, if theres someone to be able to stand between warring parties its u. N. Peacekeepers doing that, not american and women in that process sitting out there in a Forward Operating base. We should be able to continue to sanction turkish banks, banks that did business with iran, when iran was sanctioned, turkey continued to do business with some of those banks. We should increase our sanctions there and we should be extremely clear that turkey will not get access to the f35. I cannot imagine the response of the American People, how much stronger it would be right now if it was american f35s that were flying across the turkishsyrian borders to bomb our own allies, the kurds. We should make it very clear, there is no Foreign Military sale to turkey and continue to be able to cut them off. Weve got to be clear in the consequences. Weve got to be rapid in the response because right now people are dying in northern syria. If those same families and those same individuals that put their own life on the line to be able to stand up against isis. They stood with us in multiple areas and have a great propensity towards freedom and forwards democracy which desperately needs to grow in the middle east. The chaos thats ensuing is the chaos of war. Its the pain of over a century of mismanagement of this entire region. We need to stop the bloodshed first and continue to be able to negotiate with every possible lever that we can to be able to make sure that we can bring a sense of calm to the chaos that is. Starting with our greatest pressure on the turks and on president erdogan who clearly hasnt got the message yet, what the will of the American People and what the will of this Congress Really involves. This is a changing situation and its not simple. Its one ill try to come back in and try to help and inform every way that he can and to encourage this body to smartly and quickly engage in what we can do to be able to help press the turks to be able to back off the bloodshed and to be able to bring war crimes against any turk that is killing prisoners, thats attacking civilians, and any individual that we can identify to bring to justice in the process. With that, i yield the floor. Mr. President , i rise today to speak about the impeachment inquiry currently underway in the house of representatives. An impeachment inquiry is a solemn and serious manner, concerning the official conduct of the president of the United States and implicates matters of grave importance. Our national security, the rule of law, and the very foundations of our constitution. We all, democrats and republicans alike, have a duty to defend our democracy so when we are confronted with evidence that President Donald Trump abused his power and violated his oath of office