Turkish thugs must pay for assault on DC protest
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bodyguards on Tuesday attacked protesters in Washington, bloodying several. That’s standard back in Istanbul, but the Trump administration will have to teach Erdogan & Co. that it won’t fly here.
The brawl erupted while Erdogan was meeting at the White House with President Trump. Dozens of Kurdish-Americans rallied outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in DC to protest Erdogan’s crackdown on dissent, with more than 130,000 people detained.
Several carried the flag of the Kurdish PYD party — a red flag for Erdogan, who ended decades of government strife with Kurdish rebels before reopening the war in 2015.
When counter-protesters began to gather, DC police tried to keep the sides separate — but Erdogan supporters, joined by his security staffers, broke through and started the beatdown.
“All of a sudden they just ran towards us,” demonstrator Lucy Usoyan told ABC. “Someone was beating me in the head nonstop, and I thought, ‘OK, I’m on the ground already, what is the purpose to beat me?’ ”
Nine people were hospitalized, and only two arrested by overwhelmed cops.
DC police say they’ll work with the State Department and the Secret Service to ID the assailants. But State’s official comment is merely that it’s “concerned by the violent incidents involving protestors and Turkish security personnel” and is “communicating that concern to the Turkish government in the strongest possible terms.”
If diplomatic immunity prevents prosecution, the administration must find some other response — including expelling Turkish diplomats.
We can’t change Turkey’s government, but we can insist it obey the law in this country.