Speech #1000128127

Mr. President. several of my colleagues have made statements over the last several months calling attention to the plight of the Terlitsky family of Moscow. who have been attempting to emigrate from the Soviet Union since 1976. The facts of this case have been told before but bear repeating. The family consists of Mark. his wife Svetlana. their 19yearold daughter Olga. and Marks mother Fanya. When the family first applied for visas in 1976. Marks brother Leonard was the only one who received permission to leave. Leonard now lives in New York where he practices as an architect and continues to work actively to help the other members of his family to join him in the United States. The intervening years have been hard for the rest of the family. Mark. an architect like his brother. and his wife both lost their jobs shortly after applying for and being denied visas and since then have lived on their earnings from temporary employment. Olga is said to be an accomplished violinist for her age. In all likelihood her status as the daughter of a refusenik has hampered her chances to pursue a career. Marks mother Fanya. who is in her seventies. is suffering from Alzheimers. with little treatment available in the Soviet Union. The reason I wish to highlight their case again today is that we have received news that their application for visas was again denied on November 2. Although they have been denied visas to the United States in 1983. 1985. and earlier this year. this most recent refusal is extremely disturbing to us because it was made by a special commission appointed by the Supreme Soviet to hear appeals of emigration denials. We are not sure of the grounds for the denial. In the past the requests for visas have been denied on the grounds of State security. Although it seems odd that an architect would be classified as a security risk. Mark apparently had a lowlevel security clearance when he worked as an architect for an institute that was involved in various restoration projects in Moscow.