27 May, 2017
The guards surrounded a middle-aged man who had been kicked to the ground and was kicked repeatedly in the face. The incident left 11 people injured, nine of whom were hospitalized.
The footages recorded in the street on Embassy Row in Washington, D.C., showed members of the Turkish security personnel pushing past U.S. police and assaulting the protesters as Erdogan was due to arrive in the Turkish ambassador's residence.
VOA's Turkish service says the protesters at the scene were Kurdish supporters calling for pro-Kurdish lawmaker Selahattin Demirtas' release from prison.
Mehmet Tankan, 31, said he was one of a dozen protesters outside the ambassador's residence chanting anti-Erdogan slogans when the brawl broke out. A previous video from Voice of America showed police officers struggling to protect protesters and ordering the attackers to stop. Instead, several of the men dodge the officers and ran into the park to continue the attacks.
Politicians weighed in as well.
"After all, they violated American laws in the United States of America, so you can not have that happen in the United States of America. We do not do this here", Sen.
Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) heavily criticized the action, saying, "I'm still outraged at this Turkish beating. There is no excuse for this thuggish behavior".
"The new United States administration is more honest than the previous one", Cavusoglu said.
The Turkish foreign minister is calling for the removal of the U.S. envoy, claiming he is sympathetic to Kurdish Syrians as the top congressional Republican demands swift action after the Turkish president's security detail violently broke up a protest in Washington, DC.
State Department official Heather Nauert said in a statement the USA concerns would be communicated to the Turkish government "in the strongest possible" way.
There may be issues with diplomatic immunity, Police Chief Peter Newsham said at a news conference Wednesday. Two men identified as 49-year-old Ayten Necmi of NY and 42-year-old Jalal Kheirabadi of Virginia, all United States residents were arrested as main suspects.
The fact that one D.C. policeman and two Secret Service agents were also assaulted during the encounter surely upped the ante on the event and its aftermath. A US official said Thursday that wasn't the case.
Court paperwork spells his name Kheirabaoi, but he said that is incorrect.
Turkey's foreign minister also demanded that a USA envoy be removed for allegedly backing the Kurds, but the State Department said Brett McGurk has the "full support" of the Trump administration.
And as the first known visit of a senior United States official to Syrian territory, he visited Kurdish forces in Kobane in Rojava last February.
McGurk was in northern Syria Tuesday and Wednesday for talks with the leadership of the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters, and the YPG, according to a source in the nascent Raqa city civilian council.
Erdogan met President Trump at the White House on Tuesday, and during that meeting he made it clear that the decision to arm the group will "never be accepted".
The Trump Administration hasn't responded to the demand for an ouster, but McGurk's position appears in-line with the rest of the administration on arming the Kurdish YPG and using them against ISIS.
