While Turkish President Erdogan’s recent visit to the United States resulted in a less than exciting press conference with Donald Trump, the action on the streets of Washington was anything but boring.
READ MORE: Presidents Erdogan and Trump hold an uncomfortable looking press conference
Erdogan was greeted by pro-Kurdish and other anti-Erdogan demonstrators in the land of the First Amendment. While of course the First Amendment is under assault from dogmatic ultra-liberals in the land of its birth, free speech in Turkey has all but died under Erdgoan. Even the popular on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia has been censored by his regime.
READ MORE: Wikipedia appeals Turkish ban to Constitution Court and will likely lose
But rather than ignore the protesters and move on as most responsible parties would have done, Erdogan’s security team physically assaulted the protesters. Some appeared to be in severe pain as a result.
Stroller of author's son seen end 'Will Erdogan's thugs face no consequences for attacking us on US soil?' @pitpitok https://t.co/oy0KKTw4sc pic.twitter.com/A29XWfXKUv
— Mutlu Civiroglu (@mutludc) May 18, 2017
Kurdish protester Seyid Riza Dersimi recalls the attack against him and other protesters in front of Turkish ambassador's residence pic.twitter.com/qEjCMtVMO8
— Mutlu Civiroglu (@mutludc) May 18, 2017
This is not the first time Erdogan’s bodyguards have taken local law enforcement into their own hands. Previous visits to the United States and other countries by Erdogan have resulted in the similar treatment of protesters. Erdogan’s guards once even fought with UN security officials.
The story has been largely ignored by the US mainstream media, but imagine if for example Vladimir Putin’s private security guards beat up US protesters? It would be front page news in the Washington Post and New York Times, CNN would be running the story non-stop.
Some would doubtlessly be calling for military retribution.
As it is, the US authorities will likely do nothing due to diplomatic immunity laws. I doubt those laws would be interpreted so strongly if Russia was involved.
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