During President Erdogan’s visit to the US, his secret police attacked peaceful protesters in DC.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/447732/turkey-secret-service-protesters-attack-washington-dc
The video of the incident is somewhat explicit.
I find this so horrifying. Apparently, they did something similar last year so I wish the police presence had been stronger, although that might have made no difference.
Just the sight of these men in black suits, running across the street to kick and punch people who are just standing there holding signs or a Kurdish flag, and they get to just leave the country with no fuss? The DC police and the Secret Service seem very angry. No comment from the White House so far. Just a horrible, horrible scene.
I would imagine these thugs have diplomatic immunity.
Yes, but couldn’t we get their names and not let them come back?
Video from where Erdogan watches.
Agree, horrifying. I rarely feel I’m a “rah-rah” sort of American, having lived years happily outside of the U.S., but this video had my blood boiing with a patriotic fervor of “how dare you think you can do this on U.S. soil!”
This is disgusting on so many levels… when a bunch foreign thugs can get away with what would put an American citizen in jail!
Unfortunately, the most the US could do to those thugs is to declare them persona non grata and order them to leave the country and not come back unless the Turkish government voluntarily waives immunity(Ha!..especially considering those thugs were likely carrying out orders by that very government.)
However, the US can retaliate against the Turkish government for these heinous actions. The question is…do they have the will to do so…
We can kick their ambassador,or a bunch of embassy employees, out of our country. We could seize funds from them to pay medical bills for the injured. Why on earth would Erdogan be invited on to our shores? With his record of smashing human rights? Why no statement of outrage or concern from our leader?
“However, the US can retaliate against the Turkish government for these heinous actions.”
You are kidding, right! :))
The Turkish bodyguards have already left the country.
@BunsenBurner “However, the US can retaliate against the Turkish government for these heinous actions.”
We can but I guess you agree our government lacks the will to do the right thing.
We know they’ve left the country. We need to demand that they never return. The country can be sanctioned. It came out today that Erdogan was in the black car and told the body guards to knock some heads.
I’m not holding my breath that our administration will do anything resembling retaliation… Agree - why were the thug and his encourage invited in the first place?!
Then they would likely respond by kicking out our Ambassador and embassy employees and at the end of the day what would that accomplish?
People at the Post dissected the video from the Ambassador’s residence and matched it with the other video. They conclude that Erdogan talked to a man who ran down to the street and the brawling started right after that. He told them to do it! Really shocking.
Sadly, greenwitch, I don’t find it shocking at all. Just really sad. The US govt no longer cares about human rights anywhere in the world.
Erdogan is a thug. Our politicians might be walking up with the proverbial fleas.
Even when it did to some extent in international relations, it was limited by realpolitik (e.g. some long term allies have horrendous human rights records, or had for significant periods of time during alliance or friendship), and promoting human rights was/is also a realpolitik item in many situations (e.g. used as a way to criticize adversaries). But now it is looking worse, both internationally and domestically. Domestically, the trends are looking downward:
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2017/united-states
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2017/united-states
Turkey summoned the US Ambassador to complain. Apparently they were not happy they had to do the job of the DC police by beating the peaceful protesters themselves.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19436604/oklahoma-city-thunder-center-enes-kanter-wants-become-us-citizen-received-death-threats is a story that gives some indication of how nasty politics in Turkey seems to be now.