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Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is seen watching his security officials beat protesters outside the countrys embassy in Washington in newly released video footage.

The bloodyclash, which sent nine people to a hospital, took place Tuesday night just hours after Erdogan met with President Trump.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House with President Trump May 16, 2017 (White House photo)

CNN reported the video shows Erdogan standing near his car as the fighting broke out then turning his back and walking into the Turkish embassy.

Photos and videos of the scene on Embassy Row during rush hour showed men in dark suits punching and kicking protesters, including some who were lying on the ground. Two men were seen bleeding from the head.

The State Department, which is investigating the incident, summoned Turkeys ambassador to the U.S., Serdar Kl, to the State Department, a senior State Department official told CNN.

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The conduct of Turkish security personnel earlier this week is deeply disturbing, the official said. The State Department has raised its concerns about these events at the highest levels and a thorough investigation that will allow us to hold the responsible individuals accountable is of the utmost importance to us.

Members of Erdogans security team also clashed with demonstrators last year outside the Brookings Institution in Washington, where Erdogan was giving a speech.

Brookings issued a statement at the time saying the security team behaved unacceptably they roughed up protesters outside the building and tried to drag away undesired journalists, an approach typical of the Russians or Chinese.

As WND reported, many geopolitical analysts are concerned the NATO nation, once regarded as a potential member of the European Union, is being systematically transformed into an anti-Western power. Fifteen years into his rule, Erdogan is abandoning the secular tradition of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatrk, in favor of Islamic nationalism.

Last month, Erdogan declared victory in a referendum to grant him sweeping powers in a vote opponents charged was marred by irregularities.

The measure, with 51.5 percent of the vote, replaced Turkeys parliamentary system with an all-powerful presidency and abolished the office of prime minister.

A week before his visit to the U.S., Erdogan urged Muslims to swarmthe Temple Mount to act as a counter to the insult of occupied Jerusalem.

He called Israel a racist and discriminatory state that is reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa.

Erdogan also met with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to work on unifying efforts to protect Jerusalem against attempts of Judaization, the independent Palestinian Maan news agency reported.

In December, as WND reported, hacked emails released by WikiLeaks showed Erdogans son-in-law is tied to the company accused of importing oil from ISIS. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov previously told journalists in Moscow that Erdogan and his family were involved in ISIS illegal oil trade and personally benefiting from it.

Turkey also has been accused of training ISIS fighters and of providing direct support to ISIS.

Strong relationship

At the White House Tuesday, Trump and Erdogan described the relationship between the two countries as strong but avoided the differences over strategies for confronting ISIS in northern Syria.

Pastor Andrew Brunson

Last week, the Trump administration decided to supply heavy weapons to Syrian Kurdish rebel militias, the YPG, who are part of the U.S.-backed alliance preparing march on the ISIS de-facto capital, Raqqa, later this year. Turkey is in an ongoing battle with Kurdish separatists in its southeast.

The Turkish embassy claimsthe protesters at the embassy Tuesday were affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the leading Kurdish separatist group, which has been banned in Turkey.

The case of Pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been imprisoned in Turkey without formal charges since October, was brought up three times during Trumps meeting with Erdogan, twice by Trump and once by Vice President Mike Pence, CBN reported.

A former member of Turkeys Parliament who has advocated for Brunsons release, Aykan Erdemir, told CBN that Brunson, improbably accused of membership in an armed terrorist organization, is now a pawn, kind of a trump card in Erdogans hand.

Theres absolutely no rule of law, no due process in that case, its a completely bogus case. Anyone who has looked at the case knows that these are trumped up charges, he said.

Turkish President Erdogan is seen surveying the violence before entering the Turkish ambassadors residence (Voice of America Turkish)

Turkey claims self-defense

The senior State Department official who spoke to CNN said two members of Erdogans security detail were briefly detained during the altercations and subsequently released.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has called for the Turkish ambassador to be expelled.

The Turkish embassy, in its statement, claimed theprotesters began aggressively provoking Turkish-American citizens who had peacefully assembled to greet the President.

The Turkish-Americans responded in self-defense, the statement said. We hope that, in the future, appropriate measures will be taken to ensure that similar provocative actions causing harm and violence do not occur.

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Video shows Erdogan watching embassy melee - WND.com

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The state-run Anadolu Agency reported that the officials running the newspaperSozcu reportedly kept ties to the Hizmet Islamic movement that Gulen, who is based in Pennsylvania, leads.

The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses Gulen of having organized a failed coup against Erdogan in July 2016, accusations Gulen has steadfastly denied. The Turkish government refers to Hizmet, which consists of a network of international charter schools, as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO). Erdogan and Gulen were once close political allies.

Anadolu reports thatMediha Olgun,Sozcus website manager, is in custody, while ownerBurak Akbay had left the country and remains at large.

Anadolu makes the notable distinction that the newspapers employees stand accused of committing crimes on behalf of FETO even though they are not group members. Reuters notes thatamong the official charges against these suspects is an armed rebellion against the government of the Turkish Republic, implying they played a role in the July coup attempt.

Sozcu editor-in-chiefMetin Yilmaz has denied any criminal allegations against his colleagues. The only thing we do is journalism. But doing that in this country is a crime in itself Writing the truth, criticizing and doing stories are all crimes, he said in a statement.

Deutsche Welle lists the other two employees for which the police have drafted warrants as reporterGokmen Ulu andfinancial executive Yonca Kaleli, citing CNN Trk. The publication adds that, despite Anadolus reporting, the newspapers attorney says he has no evidence of a warrant for arrest being issued against his clients.

The known evidence that the newspaper, which publishes reports with a secularist/anti-Islamist bent, supports the Islamic cleric Gulen appears thin.

Sabah,a newspaper friendly to the Erdogan government, reported that the reason for the crackdown onSozcuis an article by Ulu in which the paper alleged to know Erdogans secret location during the July coup attempt. Erdogan famously addressed the nation from an undisclosed location during the coup using the Apple application Facetime, in a move that assured supporters he had not been killed and had not fled the country.

Deutsche Wellesuggests that theSozcu article in question revealed only where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was spending his holiday in the Aegean resort town of MarmarisBy the time the coup attempt took place, Erdogan had left the location.

Yeni Safak, a Turkish newspaper that also publishes stories favorable to Erdogan, confirmed that the story in question was published before the failed coup, though specifying that the charges against Ulu were related to that article.

None of these reports explain what link allegedly exists between the article in question, those arrested, and Fethullah Gulen.

The arrests occur onCommemoration of Atatrk, Youth and Sports Day, a national holiday in Turkey to honor the secularist founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatrk. The leader of the party Atatrk founded, the Republican Peoples Party (CHP), visited the offices ofSozcu Friday to stand in solidarity with the publication.

Sozcu is a newspaper everyone reads, a newspaper that does not bow to repression therefore a newspaper that does not like power. They are true journalists the arrest of journalists and pressure on newspapers is a situation that no democracy will accept,Kemal Kldarolu affirmed in remarks during his visit.

The CHP has stood alongside other secularist publications that have received similar police attention in the past. Among the highest-priority enemies for the Erdogan government in media are the staff ofCumhuriyet, a secularist newspaper.

As of April, the Turkish government has indicted nineteenCumhuriyet employees, from its former editor-in-chief to its cafeteria cook, for alleged ties to both Gulen and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Marxist U.S.-designated terrorist group.

Cumhuriyet is reporting on theSozcu arrests on their front page Friday and continue to publish anti-Erdogan material despite the arrests and departure of former editor-in-chief Can Dndar, in exile in Europe after an assassination attempt at the courthouse where he was being processed.

The CHP has condemned fascist attempts to silenceCumhuriyet and other media outlets allegedly tied to terrorist groups.

Following the July coup attempt, Erdogans government has jailed dozens of journalists and shut down over one hundred media outlets they claim to have ties to coup conspirators, Gulen, or both. The government shut down 131 media outlets overnight in July 2016and has since placed entire media corporations on lockdown.

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Turkey Issues Warrants for Newspaper Chiefs Who Revealed Erdogan's Location on Coup Night - Breitbart News

A brawl outside theTurkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., was captured on video Tuesday -- as witnesses claimed that members of PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan's security detail attacked protesters. Erdogan was in the U.S. for a meeting with President Donald Trump at the time.

Two people were arrested after the incident: one for aggravated assault and one for assault on a police officer. 11 people were hurt in the brawl, including a police officer.

"We witnessed what appeared to be a brutal attack on peaceful protesters," a police official said on Wednesday.

Witnesses toldThe Guardianthat the fight erupted when the Turkish presidents security attacked protesters carrying the flag of the Kurdish PYD party outside the embassy, hours after Erdogan met with Trump at the White House.

Video footage posted on social media showed some protesters bloodied as others were being beaten on the ground.

All of the sudden they just ran towards us, said Yazidi Kurd demonstrator Lucy Usoyan. She said a pro-Erdogan supporter attacked her.

ACTIVISTS URGE TRUMP TO PROD ERDOGAN ON RIGHTS

Someone was beating me in the head nonstop, and I thought, Okay, Im on the ground already, what is the purpose to beat me? she added.

Metropolitan police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said the altercation broke out between two groups.

"The actions seen outside the Turkish Embassy yesterday in Washington, D.C. stand in contrast to the First Amendment rights and principles we work tirelessly to protect each and everyday," the police department said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

"The Metropolitan Police Department made two arrests following yesterday's incidents and we have every intention to pursue charges against the other individuals involved. We will continue to work with our partners at the United States State Department and United States Secret Service to identify and hold all subjects accountable for their involvement in the altercation."

MATTIS MEETS WITH TURKEY PM AMID DISPUTE OVER ARMING SYRIAN KURDS

Trump and Erdogan met to try to renew ties after the U.S. announced it was going to supply arms to the Kurdish group in its fight against the Islamic State.

Turkey considers the group a terror organization.

It is absolutely unacceptable to take the YPG-PYD into consideration as partners in the region, and its going against a global agreement we reached, Erdogan said. In the same way, we should never allow those groups who want to change the ethnic or religious structures in the region to use terrorism as a pretext, he added, suggesting that the Kurds were using the anti-ISIS fight as cover for separatist nationalism.

An investigation into the brawl is still ongoing. Police could not confirm that Erdogan's bodyguards were involved.

"This is a city where people should be able to come and peacefully protest," the police official said. "This is not something we can tolerate in our city."

Fox News' Jennifer Griffin, Matt Richardson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Erdogan's bodyguards accused of attacking protesters outside ...

A little more than a year ago in the same city, journalists accused members of Erdogan's security detail of man-handling them and cursing them at a speech the Turkish president gave at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

Outside the event on March 31, 2016, DC police had to intervene to separate Erdogan supporters and protesters in what police described as a "skirmish involving demonstrators."

Erdogan referred to the protests as he addressed the audience inside: "They are shouting, but they don't know what's going on back in Turkey. The freedom of expression has been regulated within the clauses of the Turkish constitution ... They are pretending that I have illegitimacy."

Meanwhile Brookings staff had to step in to protect a credentialed journalist from being evicted from the venue by Turkish security. Another journalist, Woodrow Wilson fellow Amberin Zaman, accused a Turkish security guard of calling her "a whore."

The incident took place in the mining town of Soma, a day after a devastating coal mine fire killed nearly 300 people as Prime Minister Erdogan visisted the town.

The image outraged many in Turkey, prompting an outpouring of anger on social media.

The aide, identified as Yusuf Yerkel by Turkish media and CNN Turk, reportedly said he was deeply saddened by the events.

"I am sad that I could not keep my calm in the face of all the provocation, insults, and attacks that I was subjected to that day," he said, according to Turkey's semi-official Anadolu news agency.

In September 2011, a brawl erupted between members of then Prime Minister Erdogan's security detail and United Nations security officers in the halls of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

A UN guard was reportedly taken to hospital with an injury after the incident.

Several days later, a spokesman for the UN Secretary General issued a statement about "some unfortunate misunderstandings involving security between UN uniformed officials and security officials of member delegations."

After this week's assault by Turkish security officials against protesters in front of the Turkish ambassador's residence in Washington, the US State Department said it was "communicating our concern to the Turkish government in the strongest possible terms."

A statement from the Turkish embassy argued "Turkish-Americans responded in self-defense."

Critics argue the violence illustrates the much broader pattern of human rights abuses in Turkey.

In the 15 years that Erdogan has served as prime minister and president of Turkey, there has been a broad trend to crack down on freedom of the press and expressions of public dissent.

Turkey is frequently ranked as the world's top jailer of journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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Erdogan entourage's history of violence - CNN

A little bit of Recep Tayyip Erdogans regime came to Washington for Erdogans visit with President Trump earlier this week. In this case, a little bit is way too much, although it may be a representative sample.

Tom Rogan notes that on Tuesday the Turkish Presidential Protection Department attacked peaceful protesters on American soil (video below). Making themselves feel right at home in Washington, TPPD officers launched a coordinated attack on pro-Kurdish protesters outside the Turkish ambassadors residence.

The State Department has issued what Rogan calls a placid semi-condemnation. Here it is in its entirety: We are concerned by the violent incidents involving protestors and Turkish security personnel Tuesday evening. Violence is never an appropriate response to free speech, and we support the rights of people everywhere to free expression and peaceful protest. We are communicating our concern to the Turkish government in the strongest possible terms.

Rogan shows why the boilerplate is not enough. He does his best to capture the outrage that the Turks have committed on our soil and propose good ideas for action.

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Mr. Erdogan goes to Washington - Power Line (blog)