Ground Report

On October 29, 2013 Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois asked for and was granted permission to address the United States House of Representatives for one minute regarding criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s abysmal human rights record.

“Mr. Speaker, I was stunned to see Russian President Vladimir Putin disparage American exceptionalism a few weeks ago. Simply put, Mr. Putin’s human rights record leaves much to be desired, including his treatment of Ahiska Turks. A distinct minority, they are severely persecuted by top Russian authorities in Putin’s government solely for their ethnicity and religion.”

“During Mr. Putin’s first term, the State Department designated Ahiska Turks as a group of special humanitarian concern. Since then, 12,000 Turks have resettled in America, including many in Illinois and in my district. However, 80,000 Ahiska Turks remain in Russia, and they routinely face discrimination and persecution in areas of their lives that we often take for granted. In an ethnic cleansing campaign, Stalin uprooted and resettled Ahiska Turks to central Asia from their ancestral lands in Georgia in 1944. Unable to return, they have since been perennial refugees in Central Asia and Russia. This is the reality of Putin’s Russia: in Russia, people are routinely and severely discriminated against, tortured, even killed, and are economically and financially repressed”, he said.

“When given the freedom to chase the American Dream, these same Ahiska Turks have fulfilled their potential in less than a decade. I will let my colleagues make their own determinations about which nation is exceptional”, said Rep. Kinzinger (source: Congressional Record http://thomas.loc.gov).

Congressman Adam Kinzinger serves on both the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee.

See related video: Wicker speaks on Senate floor regarding Russia’s human rights abuses http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naM_cAKG_aQ