The following summary by David Boyajian recaps the events in D.C. seven years ago when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bodyguards roughed up American citizens. He also looks at the larger issue of the behavior of those same bodyguards on other occasions, both in the USA and elsewhere.
Turkish bodyguards attacking protesters, Washington DC, May 16 2017
The Day(s) That Turkish President Erdogan Humiliated America
by David Boyajian
Weak. Deceitful. Cowardly.
Those words describe America’s ongoing responses to the savage, unprovoked attack on peaceful protestors by Turkish President Erdogan’s security detail in Washington, DC.
It happened on Tuesday afternoon, May 16, 2017 following his meeting with President Trump.
Shortly after his motorcade arrived at the Turkish ambassador’s Sheridan Circle residence, where protestors had lawfully assembled across the street, Erdogan commanded his bodyguards to “attack, attack.”
Breaking through police lines, they kicked, punched, and bloodied the protesters, including women. Other Turks, purportedly not in Erdogan’s entourage, did the same.
The motorcade then brutalized a female demonstrator on its way to the Turkish Embassy. Assaults on Americans continued there.
The day saw a minimum of eleven persons, some with severe injuries, transported to the hospital.
Among those set upon and injured: Two U.S. Diplomatic Security members, six Secret Service agents, and a DC police officer.
Turks Allowed to Escape
Turkish Ambassador Serdar Kilic promptly asked that the bodyguards not be detained.
Sure enough, some 90 minutes later, U.S. security released them and accompanied Erdogan’s caravan to Joint Base Andrews where they jetted off to Turkey.
It was the fastest “joint move and departure I’ve ever seen,” said one U.S. agent.
The administration let the Turkish bodyguards flee, allegedly because they had diplomatic immunity.
Indignation
Then, too late, came the indignation, such as:
- The State Department expressed its “concern to the Turkish government in the strongest possible terms.”
- The bodyguards should be “charged and prosecuted,” said a unanimous House resolution in June.
Astonishingly, Trump said nothing about the attack. Perhaps this was due to his and his associates’ close relationships with Turkey and Erdogan.
There was good news, though.
On August 29, 2017, a federal grand jury indicted 15 Turkish bodyguards on felony charges.
That suggested that releasing them had been a serious error.
But then came Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s disgraceful meeting with Erdogan in Ankara on February 15, 2018.
America Caves in to Turkey — Again
Tillerson ordered that no American translator, aide, or transcriber attend the meeting.
That violated State Department protocol and ensured that no American could witness what Tillerson would bargain away.
Just the day before, the Justice Department moved — surely not coincidentally — to drop its case against most of Erdogan’s bodyguards. Charges were dismissed eight days later. Apparently, the entire detail has since dodged U.S. justice.
Tillerson obviously struck a Faustian deal to let Turkey’s unhinged president and his thugs off the hook.
That betrayed the American security agents, police, and demonstrators whom the Turks had assaulted and injured. It also mocked the First Amendment’s freedoms of assembly and speech.
American credibility took a hit as Ankara got away — like so many times before and since — with its crimes.
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