Turkey: Falun Gong Practitioners Tell Members of the National Assembly about the Persecution

To call on the Turkish government to pay attention to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, which has now lasted for six years, Turkish Falun Gong practitioners went to the Grand Turkish National Assembly. They went to visit three senior assembly members, Mr. Ali Er, Ali Oksal and Mesut Deger, who is a lawyer and a leading member of the Human Right Committee of the assembly.

The practitioners showed the three assembly members photos and posters of Falun Gong practitioners cruelly tortured by the Chinese Communist regime in China. They told them that during this brutal persecution there have been over 2,700 verified deaths of Falun Gong practitioners and tens of thousands of others have been forcibly detained in forced labour camps or psychiatric hospitals. Moreover, tens of thousands of families have been broken up as practitioners were forced to leave their homes and become destitute. However, with the Chinese Communist regime’s overwhelming cover-up and information censorship, many people still have no idea about the facts of the persecution.

Practitioners also briefly talked to them about Falun Gong's spread to seventy-eight countries. Practitioners also showed them photocopies of the awards and recognitions granted to Falun Gong by many governments around the world.

Finally, Falun Gong practitioners asked these three members of the assembly to call on the Turkish government to pay attention to the cruel persecution of Falun Gong and help put an end to this abuse of human conscience and morality.

The three assembly members attentively listened to the explanation given by the practitioners. They showed great concern and sympathy towards the persecution of Falun Gong in China. They also expressed their admiration for Falun Gong practitioners’ steadfast perseverance. Lawyer Mesut Deger indicated that they would try their best to call on the authorities concerned to pay attention to the persecution of Falun Gong in China and the Turkish Human Right Committee would also discuss the issues raised by practitioners as soon as possible and would keep the Falun Gong Association informed of the progress and results in this regard accordingly.

While practitioners were talking to the assembly members, other practitioners distributed fliers to officials and other employees working in the assembly building. After reading the fliers, some took the initiative to ask practitioners about Falun Gong and the persecution in China. Practitioners patiently answered each question raised. Almost everyone who had learned the facts about Falun Gong expressed their sympathy for Falun Gong and their anger over the persecution.

After becoming aware of the facts about the persecution, Mr. Cengiz Kaplan, a government official in Cankaya where the Grand Turkish National Assembly is located, expressed that he will help to include Falun Gong’s stories into a children’s education magazine which is sponsored by the International Children’s Foundation and has a circulation of thirty thousand per month in that region. After listening to the explanation of the facts, lawyer Selcuk Sonmez, former secretary general of the Democratic Left Party (DSP) and his wife sincerely invited some practitioners who explained the facts to them to their place to teach them Falun Gong exercises.