29 May, 2017
USA officials strongly criticized the Turkish government after video appeared to show its president's security forces pushing past police and violently breaking up a protest outside their diplomatic residence in Washington.
The bodyguards of Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan got into a fight with protesters in the nation's capital, and the whole thing was caught on video.
Two suspects linked to the violence outside the Turkish ambassador's residence in Washington have appeared in court on assault charges, police said late Wednesday.
McCain said "this kind of thing can not go unresponded to diplomatically".
Newsham said D.C. police are working with the Secret Service and State Department to identify the people who instigated the violence, and whether the men in dark suits, some with guns, are members of Erdogan's protective detail.
ISTANBUL (AP) Turkey's leader told Donald Trump that his country will keep on fighting Syrian Kurdish militants even though they are a key US ally against the Islamic State group, Turkey's foreign minister said Thursday, adding that a top USA envoy should be fired for backing the Kurds.
John McCain, R-Ariz., called for the expulsion of Turkey's ambassador to the United States.
Republican Senator Ben Sasse, writing on Twitter, said Erdogan should "remember that this country is built on free speech, free religion, free press, and freedom to protest".
"When we take this step we don't speak or consult with anyone as we don't have any time to waste".
The Turkish Embassy maintains the bodyguards were acting in self defense and that the protesters were "aggressively provoking Turkish-American citizens who had peacefully assembled to greet the president".
Later, speaking to reporters at the Turkish embassy, Erdogan underlined Turkey's concerns about the YPG, which Ankara regards as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group fighting a decades-old insurgency in southeast Turkey.
Earlier in the day, McCain was slightly less diplomatic in an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe, saying, "We should throw their ambassador the hell out of the United States of America".
Eleven people were injured, including a police officer, and nine were taken to a hospital, the Metropolitan Police chief, Peter Newsham, said at a news conference on Wednesday.
The Turkish government placed the blame at the feet of the protesters, claiming that they were affiliated with "terrorist" groups. The newspaper editorial team called them "thugs", and called for a stronger USA response, including the dismissal of Embassy staff from the country.
