22 May, 2017
In video captured by the Voice of America, a handful of Erdogan's supporters and his security detail rushed the demonstrators and started hitting them.
Nine people were hurt and two people were arrested during the incident on Tuesday, and a D.C. Fire and EMS spokesperson reported two of those who were hurt sustained serious injuries and were taken to hospitals.
Video appears to show Erdogan's bodyguards violently breaking up a protest this week while Erdogan was visiting Washington. Footage of the attack showing protesters being kicked, choked and stomped drew widespread outrage as it was circulated on social media. But D.C.'s police chief said on Wednesday that some may be protected by diplomatic immunity.
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.
However, the State Department said "violence is never an appropriate response to free speech, and we support the rights of people everywhere to free expression and peaceful protest".
Witnesses described what happened at the scene. "We did not convey it to the [Trump] administration in this way but we told them - without giving names - that those who keep their positions may affect our relationship", Çavuşoğlu said.
"All of the sudden they just ran towards us", said Lucy Usoyan, a Yazidi Kurd demonstrator. "And I thought, 'okay I'm on the ground already, what is the goal to beat me?'"
"We said we would not be in such an operation with you where you ally with terror organizations and so we said good luck", Erdogan said.
"Police did not heed Turkish demands to intervene", the news agency said, and Erdogan's security team and Turkish citizens moved in and "dispersed them".
ISTANBUL (AP) - Turkey's leader told Donald Trump that his country will keep on fighting Syrian Kurdish militants even though they are a key USA ally against the Islamic State group, Turkey's foreign minister said Thursday, adding that a top US envoy should be fired for backing the Kurds.
Turkey's foreign minister on Thursday called on the Trump administration to replace its envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition - the latest sign of Turkish frustration with the US war strategy in Syria and of mounting tensions between the two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies.
U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas A. Shannon expressed his concerns over the incident to the Turkish Ambassador. John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called for the Turkish ambassador to be kicked out of the US.
