Turkey: Telling the Deputy Secretary General and Coordinator of The Executive Board of the National Olympic Committee of Turkey about the Persecution of Falun Gong

On June 2nd, 2007, during the “Olympic Day of Long Distance Running” competition held in Mersin, in the south of Turkey, two Falun Gong practitioners paid a visit to Mr. Aziz Basdogan, Deputy Secretary General and Coordinator of the Executive Board of National Olympic Committee of Turkey. Mr Basdogan took a special trip to participate in the event; they told him about the cruel persecution of Falun Gong practitioners happening in China and the fact that the CCP has removed organs from living Falun Gong practitioners for sale.

Mr Aziz (right) talks with Falun Gong practitioners

After hearing a brief introduction by practitioners at the site of the competition, Mr. Aziz immediately made an appointment to talk about it with them in detail at his hotel an hour later.

When they again met for the appointment, the practitioners submitted to Mr. Aziz some material they had prepared in advance. These materials included evidence of Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted and reports in international media, The Report Into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China by David Matas (an international human rights lawyer) and David Kilgour ( a former member of Parliament of the Government of Canada) and protests by politicians from different countries, groups and organisations in the world because of the CCP’ serious violation of human rights, in order to reject the Olympic Games to be held in 2008 in China.

After that, the practitioners hoped that The Executive Board of National Olympic Committee of Turkey would pay attention to the cruel persecution of Falun Gong practitioners happening right now in mainland China, and help stop the inhuman atrocities as soon as possible.

After carefully listening to what the practitioners told him, Mr. Aziz said that he was shocked at these atrocities happening in China and felt very sad at the persecution Falun Gong practitioners are suffering from. He would very carefully check and approve all the materials submitted by the practitioners and probe into a way of helping stop these atrocities. He would spare no effort in doing something if such a persecution can be stopped as soon as possible. Finally, Mr. Aziz stressed: anyone who has a conscience can not remain indifferent in such a situation.