But neither this country nor this body has really paid any attention to the plight of the Kurds living as they still do on their ancient lands and still persecuted now, even as I address you, by the governments in Ankara, Damascus, Tehran and Baghdad. Mr. Speaker, I wish to restrict my commentary today to Turkey, because it is a country we honor as an ally, we support as a friend and we favor as a partner. American Special Forces train Turkish commandos in Turkey. Talks are now underway to supply Turkey with an additional 145 attack helicopters worth 4 billion dollars. In Turkey today, I note with trepidation Mr. Speaker, liberty is under assault.
Cultural genocide is the law of the land.
Mr. Speaker, we were not always indifferent to the plight of the Kurds. Our 28 th president, Woodrow Wilson, supported the right of subject peoples to self-determination. Three months later, the United States entered the war on the side of the Allies. But the prophetic words of President Wilson were disregarded, especially in the Ottoman provinces. The Armenians were massacred and the Kurds were subdued after the emergence of the Turkish Republic.