September 4, 2001
After August 27th, we practitioners who are presently in Turkey continued our work to help to spread the Fa. For instance, we met regularly in a park to do group exercises. Because of the exercises, more and more locals became aware of Falun Dafa. They began to do the exercises with us. After the third or fourth day police patrols came by. They were new officers who had not yet seen the exercises. They became agitated and called for reinforcements. At that time I was sitting next to a Turkish citizen who had already learned the exercises and understood the spirit of Dafa. When the police officers spoke to me, this Turkish man intervened on my behalf, came to my aid and asked the police what could be so terribly wrong about the exercises, saying, ' Those who do them are good people; the exercises are good for people and give them great benefits, and only help them.' I saw how this citizen intervened for Dafa, how he stood up to the police, and how he defended Dafa with his good heart. At that very moment I knew that the Turkish people are at the threshold of accepting Dafa, and that there are Turkish citizens who will keep to Dafa, even without the aid of practitioners from abroad. In the end, the police chief looked me over carefully once more and told me not to display huge placards and posters, but doing the exercises in the park would not be a problem. We exchanged glances and I recognized a good-hearted and contrite policeman.
During the next few days we managed to establish a core exercise group. That was one reason why we put together several copies of the English translation of Falun Gong. We also created over 100 copies of the exercise Video-CD, so as to make it easier for people who are interested in Falun Gong to learn and repeat the exercises. We were delighted that we could hand out these materials to the new practitioners. A Turkish practitioner found a translator to soon help with the translation of Falun Gong and Zhuan Falun.
Saturday we met for group exercises. We could definitely tell that we had a solid group of people. Some of those suggested on their own to meet at 6:30 AM every morning for group exercises. Another practitioner suggested likewise that we ought to do the exercises at a different location every weekend, because many people come by at these places to jog; that way more people would see us. Once again the Turkish people have taken the initiative to do more for Dafa. The spirit of Dafa is taking root in Turkey. Many Turks have awaited Dafa.
Monday we had access to the Turkish parliament where we had a chance to meet with the Turkish parliamentary director of human rights affairs. We clarified the true facts for him regarding the human rights abuses under Jiang Zemin's regime, told him of the brutalities during the persecution and about the unlawful measures taken by Jiang Zemin's government. He listened to us with an open heart. He realized immediately that the persecution and torture are unlawful and seemed to also have recognized that the persecuted practitioners who were present with us displayed their true and upright hearts. He promised to look into the matter and make it a point to raise the issue in parliament soon. We can truly say that he understood the Fa. He even invited us to teach him and his family the exercises in the near future. For that, we left him comprehensive materials for learning the exercises.
It is because of these [successes] that we don't want to rest quite yet, but will continue our work for Fa-rectification.
Category: April 25 Events
