Former Speaker of the Queensland Parliament John Mickel said “Tonight we are thinking of those who are incarcerated in Turkey for their beliefs.”.
Mickel delivered the Word of Thanks at an Iftar dinner organised by Queensland Intercultural Society at the Queensland Parliament on June 14th. Mickel said we take our freedoms granted in Australia. He has then acknowledged the fact that some of the relatives of those who attended to the iftar are incarcerated by the oppressive Erdogan regime in Turkey for “nothing more than being a teacher”, “nothing more than believing in the Hizmet movement”, and “nothing more than standing up to argue against the government.”
The Former Speaker continued : “I am very conscious that some of you have relatives in Turkey who are in those positions, positions where they have been incarcerated for their beliefs, and tonight we are thinking of them. We can build a bridge to those people.”
His remarks were applauded for some time by more than 300 attendees many of whom were politicians, community leaders and academics in Queensland.
