'I could have died': how Erdoğan's bodyguards turned protest into brawl by Amanda Holpuch
The first sign things
could turn violent outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington
came when a group of men in trim suits and slick ties approached the small
group of demonstrators who had gathered nearby to protest the visit by
president Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan.
“They curse us, they
curse my wife, my mother, my sister, my grandma,” Seyid Riza Dersimi told the
Guardian. Then, suddenly, more men – some in suits and some in matching khaki
outfits – surrounded and attacked Dersimi and his fellow demonstrators. Dersimi, 61, saw one
of these men grab a woman around the neck and start punching her in the face.
As he moved to help her, he
was attacked by three to four men, who pushed him down then kicked him
repeatedly. “I couldn’t get up, I tried to cover my head with my arms, I don’t
know how long they were kicking me,” Dersimi said. “Then I get up and I’m
bleeding”.
Footage from Tuesday’s
protest shows extraordinary scenes of violence in the Washington sunshine. The
attackers – who included members of Erdoğan’s security detail – run amok,
beating and kicking protesters. The demonstrators – including older men and
young women – were left bloodied, battered and bruised, while Washington police
officers attempted ineffectually to stop the violence. Video released on
Thursday by Voice of America’s Turkish service appeared to show Erdoğan
watching the melee stone-faced from the embassy driveway. He had just returned
from a meeting at the White House with Donald Trump, who rebuffed
his attempts to get the US to stop backing Kurdish forces in Syria.
But Erdoğan’s trip has
caused him further pain as senior US politicians call on him, and the US
government, to discipline the members of his security detail involved with the
altercation – which has created a lasting, violent image of peaceful protesters
beaten on American soil by people tied to a foreign regime.
“We should throw their ambassador
the hell out of the United States of America,” US senator John
McCain said, unprompted, on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Thursday morning. “These are not just
average people that did this beating, this is Erdoğan’s security detail,
somebody told them to go and beat up on these peaceful demonstrators and I
think it should have repercussions, including identifying these people and
bringing charges against them,” McCain said. “After all, they violated American
laws in the United States of America, so you cannot have that happen in the
United States of America”… read more:
