aid, and their families are not informed. Victims report repeated torture by intelligence officers, mainly sleep deprivation, beatings, waterboarding, and electric shocks." While Turkish government neither denies nor hides the abductions, these acts are publicly promoted and glorified by government- led media, and the victims are presented in handcuffs before disappearing. Between 2014 and 2023, Freedom House recorded 112 incidents of physical transnational repression against journalists perpetrated by 26 governments. Turkey is one of the leading ones. A Turkish journalist interviewed by Freedom House experienced the closure of US bank accounts, likely due to empty terrorism accusations from the Turkish government. There are dozens of people who live in the US and their accounts are still closed. People whose names appear on the published lists have faced various repercussions including the freezing or closure of their accounts, negative credit scores and various other personal and financial difficulties in Western countries. As the reports mention, after 2016, Erdogan’s regime started to arrest everyone who was in opposition. In one day more than 2 million people labeled as terrorists in Turkey. Then I began to call out human rights violations by President Erdogan in my home country. The Turkish government asked the US government to extradite me, canceled my passport, put my name on Interpol list, imprisoned my father, and set a $500,000 bounty on my head. During a 2017 visit to Indonesia, I was nearly kidnapped by the local government officials with intentions to send me back to Turkey. With the help of a good local officer, I was able to get out of the country right away. Later that year, I hardly escaped from police officers at the Romanian airport that the Turkish government sent after me. They tried to arrest me and send me back to Turkey. Thankfully Senator Lankford got involved and helped me to fly back to the US. In 9 years, I received 12 arrest warrants and countless death threats. They tried to attack me in front of a mosque in Boston. They run social media campaigns against me so their fanatics could harass me or attack me when they see me. They pressured American universities, NGOs and political groups to cancel their events with me. Sadly, all these are happening because of a so called NATO ally. Instead of protecting and supporting democracy and human rights in the country or abroad, they became an enemy of democracy and human rights. 7 years after having my Turkish citizenship revoked, I became an American citizen. While becoming a citizen, I changed my last name to Freedom and dedicated my whole life to defend freedom. I’m very grateful to the members of the Congress for inviting me to hear and allowing me to share my story and the story of millions.