AMBASSADOR'S REMARKS AND PUBLIC EVENTS

Ambassador Wilson and Nurşen Dönmez Kırıcıkaya, General Manager EMSAD

Remarks by US Ambassador Ross Wilson
Victims of Terrorism Scholarship Award

September 11, 2006 - Ankara, Turkey

I am pleased to welcome all of you.  I am especially pleased and honored to welcome and to see again Nursen Dönmez Kırıcıkaya, head of the Association for Aid and Solidarity with the Families of Martyrs from the Security Services.

Five years ago today, barbaric terrorists deliberately crashed civilian airliners packed full of innocent men, women and children into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

On this deadliest day in American history, over 3000 people lost their lives, including the citizens of 91 countries.

One of these was a 25 year-old Turkish citizen, Zuhtu Ibis, who must have looked optimistically at the life ahead of him from his office on the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center until the pessimists of hate and destruction brought his world to an end.

This fifth anniversary of that awful day is a reminder of the inhumanity of terrorist mass murderers and the challenge we as civilized people face to defend ourselves and our way of life against those who would destroy it and us.

Terrorism affects all of us.  Nowhere is this clearer than in Turkey, where PKK terrorism has claimed tens of thousands of lives and where al-Qaida launched devastating attacks in Istanbul in 2003.

America and Turkey stand together to defend our people against terrorist violence, including especially the PKK.  Together, we can, must and will do more in that work and in support of freedom, peace and prosperity here and throughout the world.

The work of government to defeat terrorists is hard, unpleasant, and dirty.  To protect our way of life, military personnel, police officers, fire fighters, rescue workers and many others bear immense risks, display great bravery, and all too often make the supreme sacrifice.

This year, to commemorate our shared sadness over September 11, 2001 and Turkey’s own immense losses, we have chosen to honor their service by donating $10,000 to the Association for Aid and Solidarity with the Families of Martyrs from the Security Services.  EMŞAD is an organization dedicated to serving families of security workers who have died at the hands of terrorists in the line of duty.  This donation will be used to support educational expenses for children of victims of terror.

For me, this gesture is a way of looking forward as we look back in sorrow at the sad wreckage left behind by PKK, al-Qaida and other terrorist violence.  Just as Zuhtu Ibis looked forward on that Tuesday morning five years ago, we look forward optimistically for the families of those who gave their lives in the defense of Turkey.  Terrorists want to foster hate, division and fear, and to force freedom loving people to bow before the tiny, violent minority.  We stand together against that.  We stand with the victims and those left behind -- with determination and with optimism for the future.

Thank you.