The following are excerpts of Co-Chairman Chris Smith’s (R-NJ) opening statement at the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission’s June 3^rd hearing, entitled “Can Turkey Find Its Way Back to Freedom? Authoritarian Consolidation versus the Defense of Turkish Democracy”:

                Welcome to our witnesses, and to everyone joining us this morning. It’s good to see many Turkish Americans in the room. Thank you for your concern about the future of Turkey, and also for your contributions to the United States.

                The title of today’s hearing poses a question of immense importance: can Turkey find its way back to freedom?

                Many people now fear that the Erdogan government may have taken Turkey near to a point of no return—that President Erdogan’s government has left democratic institutions so weakened, and power so concentrated, that it will be very difficult to restore civil and political freedom in its most basic aspects: rule of law, free and fair elections, judicial independence, religious freedom, and respect for internationally recognized human rights.

                But the answer to the question will be given by the Turkish people themselves, and that is cause for hope. The Turks are a famously courageous people. Throughout Turkey’s modern history, men and women have defended democratic values, free institutions, and fundamental liberties—sometimes under difficult circumstances—but they made progress. Today, many continue that work, but the situation is more difficult.

                Perhaps the most dramatic indication of that is the number of political prisoners in Turkey, today estimated at well over 10,000, including journalists, lawyers, elected officials, academics, civil society leaders, and democracy activists, as well as those imprisoned in abusive use of counterterrorism laws used to target people with links to Hizmet or to banned Kurdish groups.

                One of our witnesses, Serkan Golge, will recount his own harrowing tale of such repression. A U.S. citizen, he was imprisoned by the Turkish government for nearly three years, much of it in solitary confinement.  Turkish authorities treated lawful conduct—including his education, the innocent location of his bank account, family relationships, and even possession of a one-dollar bill—as evidence of terrorism. As he writes, “the legal system that imprisoned me... began with a conclusion and then searched backward through my life for facts that could be arranged to support it.”

                Even in the case of Turks abroad, standing up for freedom and rule of law requires courage. One of the most disturbing features of the current situation is the government’s record of transnational repression. Freedom House has repeatedly ranked Turkey among the world's most prolific perpetrators of transnational repression, targeting perceived opponents, critics, and dissidents abroad, including Turkish Americans, who have been subject to surveillance, intelligence-gathering, as well as pressure, intimidation and harassment.

                Of the hundreds of people imprisoned in Turkey today, the most high-profile individual is Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. He was one of the most popular leaders of political opposition in Turkey, and a likely candidate for president—few credit the “independence” of the prosecutors and judges who arrested him and charged him with leading a criminal organization, along with other opposition figures and elected officials.

                His arrest in March of 2025 came on the very day that his party was expected to nominate him as its candidate for the next presidential election. Since then, he has remained in prison while prosecutors have pursued a series of cases against him and many of his associates. More than 400 of his supporters have also been put on trial. This has marked a critical and ominous turning point—President Erdoğan had previously refrained from arresting his principal electoral rival.

                This, more than anything, prompts the question whether Turkey can find its way back to freedom. The Turkish government appears to be moving from a system in which elections are unfair, but still winnable, for the opposition to one in which, as Andrew O’Donohue states in written testimony, “it has become increasingly doubtful that Turkey's government will allow voters to choose new leaders through elections.”

                Our witnesses will address the increasingly systematic use of legal and administrative mechanisms to sideline political opponents, as well as heavy restrictions on freedom of expression, prosecution of journalists, blocking of online content, criminalization of social media activity, and pressure on independent media.

                We will hear about the increasingly systematic use of state institutions to neutralize political opposition and reconfigure the country so as to serve “the political survival, the prerogatives, and the personal preferences of a single individual,” as Henri Barkey will testify.

                Denial of religious freedom remains another serious problem. Crippling restrictions on Christian communities include the heavy interference in the internal life of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the continued closure of the Halki Seminary.

                Yet, despite all of this, elections still matter in Turkey. Erdogan tilts the playing field, but opposition parties compete—and very often, they win. The opposition holds almost half of the seats in the Turkish parliament. Civic engagement remains strong. The desire for accountable government endures.

                As the administration prepares for the upcoming NATO Summit in Ankara, I urge the administration to remind the Turkish government that freedom, rule of law, and democracy are also matters of alliance strength, stability, and security, as Michael Rubin warns in his testimony, and to meet with the Turkish parliamentary opposition.

                Strong allies require trusted courts, predictable legal institutions, and confidence that prosecutions are based on evidence rather than politics.

                Likewise, NATO allies are strongest when voters have genuine choices and when opposition parties can compete fairly.

                And likewise, effective counterterrorism requires transparent evidence, fair trials, and public confidence in the justice system.

                I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about what the Turkish people can do to defend their freedom and the best of their culture and national traditions from the abuses we have seen in recent years—and what policies Congress and the U.S. government should pursue to support them.

###