Washington, D.C. – Today, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) was joined by Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-NY), Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) in introducing H. Res. 354, a resolution condemning the violence against peaceful protesters outside the Turkish Ambassador’s residence on May 16, 2017, and calling for the perpetrators to be brought to justice and measures to be taken to prevent similar incidents in the future. The resolution will be considered at tomorrow’s full committee markup. After Chairman Royce introduced the resolution, he, Ranking Member Engel, Majority Leader McCarthy, and Democratic Whip Hoyer issued the following statement:

“We are introducing this bipartisan resolution today to make it clear that last week’s unprovoked attack on peaceful protesters by Turkish security forces on American soil must not go unanswered and that those responsible must face justice.  The attack last week against the protesters fell into a pattern of similar behavior by the Erdogan government and sent a dangerous message that this ideology of suppression has a place among the NATO powers, an alliance built to protect democracy and basic rights against those who would impose the opposite upon the world.  We must dispel that notion entirely and make it clear that the United States rejects any and all attempts to deny people the right to raise their voices against those in power through nonviolent means.”

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