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ISTANBUL, TURKEY - MAY 22: President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds a press conference during the 25th Anniversary Summit of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation in Istanbul, Turkey on May 22, 2017. The meeting discusses economic cooperation and institutional reforms, plus a declaration for the 25th anniversary will be adopted. ( Kayhan zer - Anadolu Agency )

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas and Dilara Zengin

ISTANBUL

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday highlighted the need to enhance the role of the Organization of Black Sea Economic Cooperation in boosting the economic welfare of people in the region.

The Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) group was formed on June 25, 1992, as a multilateral political and economic initiative for peace, stability and prosperity in the region.

It has 12 members -- Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine. Turkey currently chairs the organization.

Speaking at a ceremony in Istanbul to mark the 25th anniversary of the organization, Erdogan focused on the need for further cooperation among member states.

Together, we all need to do more than we currently do for the Black Sea, which always gives us more than it takes from us, he said.

We may have political and even major problems among us but we should make sure we keep our organization away from those problems. Only then we will be able to work efficiently and, in fact, we should do even more.

The president said the most important accomplishment of the organization was in bringing people and countries together to meet their most pressing challenges.

As member states, we may have different languages, cultures, political stances or economic levels. But at the end of the day, we have a common denominator that is the Black Sea, which brings us all together, he said.

Erdogan underlined the need for the organization to be used as an instrument to solve problems by avoiding unfruitful political discussions.

Common challenges

He said workers in different parts of the Black Sea face common problems.

The workers, who are working at the ports of Odessa, Novorossiysk, Varna, Constanta, Batumi have common problems which are almost the same as those in Samsun, Trabzon and Zonguldak ports in Turkey, he said.

If the tea producers in Rize of Turkey have a good season, likewise on the other side of the coast the tea producers in Sochi of Russia enjoy the same thing.

Erdogan called on all member countries to follow the shared goals of peace, stability and welfare.

It is up to us, the member states, to make efforts to reinforce our cooperation under this umbrella, he told delegates. Here in Anatolia, we have a saying: a neighbor needs even the ash of another neighbour.

Erdogan said the current trade and investment volume among member states had not met its potential.

We need to work more on projects that will make a difference in the daily lives of our people such as the Black Sea Ring Highway project -- Turkey completed its part in that project 10 years ago, he said.

If other countries complete similar projects then we will have an established transportation network that can bring our people together around the Black Sea.

He also spoke about the steps taken by Turkey to remove visa barriers in recent years and urged further visa-free travel.

Further cooperation

In his remarks at the day-long ceremony, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim also called for further cooperation among members.

Focusing on the importance of fostering economic cooperation and commercial ties, he said: The population of the Black Sea basin is 350 million. The region is getting stronger, its economy is growing.

The total gross domestic product of member states has reached $2.7 trillion today while it was $658 billion in 1992.

Tourism had been boosted by visa-free travel among some members and improved infrastructure, Yildirim added.

The number of Turkish tourists who visited Black Sea states was 3.5 million last year while 10.5 million tourists came to Turkey from these countries.

Yildirim said economic cooperation meant more trade, investment, employment and good ties.

There might be political problems among our countries from time to time, he added. These are temporary problems that we should not get stuck in. Close cooperation should continue.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev later described the Black Sea region as a commonwealth.

He told the BSEC meeting that the group had created an environment of trust.

Total development

Greater foreign investment would reverse declining levels of trade between member states, he said, and boasted of Russias $1 million donation to promote overseas investments and enhance small- and medium-sized businesses.

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos said stronger cooperation would ease tension and help find solutions to problems that exist between Greece and Turkey.

Igor Dodon, president of Moldova, welcomed the success of Turkeys chairmanship and said Moldovan trade with BSEC members accounted for 48 percent of its total exports.

The countries here constitute almost half of our foreign trade volume in both import and export, he said.

Dimitry Kumsishvili, Georgias vice president and first vice prime minister, called for the lifting of trade barriers to develop the export market for less developed members.

Members of the BSEC must support each other for total development, he said. Leaders must take the initiative and responsibility to establish links.

Azerbaijani Parliamentary Speaker Ogtay Asadov called for mutual respect, humanity, tolerance for a future where the Black Sea region has prosperity.

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said the organization should focus more on economic cooperation and less on political issues. The BSEC could make a difference, he said.

Stepan Kubiv, Ukraines deputy prime minister, said cooperation should be strengthened in light of democratic values and ideals. He added that there could not be peace in the region while Ukraine remained territorially split.

Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu highlighted EU special initiatives that favored BSEC members.

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Erdogan urges more cooperation among Black Sea states - Anadolu Agency

"The American and Turkish peoples have been friends and allies for many, many decades," said Trump, as he stood beside Erdogan to deliver remarks after their oval office meeting.

"We support Turkey in the fight against terror groups like ISIS and the PKK, and ensure they have no safe quarter," he added. "We also appreciate Turkey's leadership in seeking an end to the horrific killing in Syria."

Despite the apparent warmth between the two leaders, relations have been strained by the US refusal to extradite a Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania whom Erdogan blames for orchestrating a July coup attempt against him.

Standing beside Trump, Erdogan said that Turkey would not consider any plans for Kurdish groups to be part of the region's future.

"There is no place for the terrorist organization in the future of our region, taking YPG and PYD into consideration in the region will never be accepted and it's going to be against a global agreement that we have reached," President Erdogan said.

As well as congratulating Trump on his election victory, Erdogan stressed the importance of US-Turkey cooperation."The relations between Turkey and the United States have been erected upon common democratic values and common interests," said Erdogan. "Keeping our outstanding relations stronger than ever will be very important not only for our common interests, but also stability of the globe and peace around the world."

Erdogan sought use the visit as a means of underscoring a new era in close US-Turkey ties, in fighting terrorism as well as building economic and trade opportunities, saying that he was "determined to expand relations."

"I believe my current official visit to the United States will mark a historical turn" said Erdogan, adding that he hoped to "enjoy some further gains in terms of the future."

Turkey, a NATO member, is a vital ally in the fight against ISIS, allowing the US to use its Incirlik air base in the fight against the terror group. Relations were strained, if businesslike, for the last few years as the Obama administration distanced itself from Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian rule.

"Erdogan and his allies have mounted an assault on the rule of law, particularly using sweeping state of emergency authorities to stifle fundamental rights including free speech, undermine the independence of the judiciary, and quash any opposition to their undemocratic actions," said the letter signed by Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez and 15 others senators.

Trump didn't touch on any of the disagreements and instead praised Turkey's efforts in the war against ISIS and for its fight against internal terrorist attacks. He stressed that the US would "offer our support to Turkey" in its fight against terrorism and that they would "reinvigorate our trade and commercial ties."

"These are areas where we can rebuild our relationship," Trump said in comments earlier in the day.

All Trump's interactions with Erdogan are overshadowed by his family's business holdings in the country. In a 2015 interview with Breitbart News, Trump told Steve Bannon -- now his adviser -- that "I have a little conflict of interest because I have a major, major building in Istanbul."

During the presidential campaign, when Trump was calling for a ban on Muslims entering the country and floating the idea of a Muslim registry, Erdogan called for the then-candidate's name to be removed from Istanbul's Trump Towers, saying Trump had "no tolerance for Muslims."

In a separate meeting at the White House, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, met with his Turkish counterpart, Minister of Defense Fikri Isk. According to a readout of the meeting provided to the press by the pentagon, the two men discussed efforts to combat the PKK, and the crisis in Syria.

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Trump welcomes Erdogan amid US-Turkey strains

Updated: 1:37 p.m. EDT

Casting aside his predecessors concerns about human rights abuses and the suppression of free speech in another nation, Donald Trump lavished praise on another autocratic foreign leader on Tuesday, calling it a great honor to welcome the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to the White House.

Just hours after Trump focused his remarks on the exemplary valor of the Turkish soldier, however, Erdogans presidential bodyguards were caught on video punching and kicking protesters outside the Turkish ambassadors residence in Washington.

Images recorded by the Turkish-language service of Voice of America, a Congressionally funded broadcaster, showed the Turkish security guards battering about a dozen demonstrators, after scuffles between the protesters and Erdogan supporters.

Another witness captured video of the aftermath, as some of those injured in the attack received treatment, and an Erdogan supporter stomped on the flag of a Syrian Kurdish group that is fighting the Islamic State with the support of the United States.

Some of the Turkish officials were seen kicking prone demonstrators who had already been knocked to the pavement across from the diplomatic compound, where Erdogan had arrived a short time earlier.

One Turkish official was photographed throttling a young woman.

Far from disputing that Erdogans security team was involved in the melee, a state news agency confirmed it, reporting, inaccurately, that the presidents team had been forced to step in because the American police had failed to stop an unauthorized protest by supporters of a Kurdish terrorist group.

A pro-government newspaper, Yeni Safak, also blamed the DC police for not stifling the protest, and claimed that the Kurdish protesters had shouted racist slogans against Turkey and attacked Turkish citizens.

In fact, as video recorded just before the bodyguards charged the protesters showed, the demonstrators had been chanting Erdogan: terrorist! while holding signs decrying Turkeys repression of its Kurdish minority and the jailing of a Kurdish political leader, Selahattin Demirtas.

One pro-Erdogan journalist, Fatih Tezcan, even shared video of the attack set to thrilling music, in which it seemed to have been provoked by a woman tossing water in the direction of the presidents supporters.

Yesterday afternoon we witnessed what appeared to be a brutal attack on peaceful protesters at the Turkish ambassadors residence, Peter Newsham, the chief of Washingtons Metropolitan Police Department told reporters on Wednesday afternoon. As a result of the assault, 11 people, and one police officer, were injured.

The police chief said that his officers were scouring through video of the incident and could file charges against those responsible for the attack, but did not yet know if any of the assailants had diplomatic immunity.

Newsham also said that such repression of dissent is not something that we will tolerate here in Washington, D.C. this is a city where people should be allowed to come and peacefully protest. He noted, too, that the fact that some of the Turkish bodyguards were armed made the situation dicey for police officers.

While Erdogans guards had engaged in similar behavior during a visit to a Washington think tank last year, on that occasion the Turkish leader had not been invited to the White House by Trumps predecessor, former President Barack Obama.

Obamas United Nations ambassador, Samantha Power, and former National Security Council spokesman, Tommy Vietor, were among those who expressed disgust at images of the assault on protesters in Washington on Tuesday.

Trumps warm embrace of Erdogan, whose name he repeatedly mispronounced, seemed to continue a pattern of ignoring the repressive behavior of autocratic leaders from Vladimir Putin to Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to, briefly, Bashar al-Assad who try to cast their crackdowns on dissent as part of a broader war on Islamist terror.

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Trump Praises Erdogan, Whose Bodyguards Then Assault Protesters in ...

Nine people were injured, including one seriously, in a brutal fight between supporters and opponents of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan outside the Turkish ambassadors residence in Washington, DC.

Footage from the scene shows men in suits viciously attacking a group of anti-Erdogan protesters, pushing them to the ground men and women alike and kicking some of them repeatedly in the head. The men in suits, according to media citing eyewitnesses, are members of the Turkish presidents security detail.

The protest, which took place during the evening rush hour, hours after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with President Donald Trump at the White House, shut down Sheridan Circle and the area surrounding the Turkish ambassadors residence.

About two dozen people showed up outside the ambassadors residence.

We are protesting [Erdogans] policies in Turkey, in Syria, and in Iraq, Flint Arthur of Baltimore, Maryland told CNN.

It is unclear what started the fracas between the opposing groups, which were shouting slogans at each other. One contingent displayed Kurdish and Armenian flags, as well as anti-Erdogan posters, while the other was waving Turkish flags.

The alleged members of Erdogans security details managed to disrupt the protest for a while.

They think they can engage in the same sort of suppression of protest and free speech that they engage in in Turkey, Arthur said. They stopped us for a few minutes... but we still stayed and continued to protest Erdogans tyrannical regime, he added.

This wasnt the first time the Turkish presidents security detail has been accused of using fists to silence a public protest against Erdogan in the US. Chaos erupted in the streets of Washington during a visit last March, when his body guards repeatedly clashed with protesters and tried to expel journalists. They even confronted DC police when they refused to remove the protesters.

Trump warmly welcomed Erdogan to the White House earlier Tuesday.

"We've had a great relationship and we will make it even better," Trump said as the two men sat next to each other in the Oval Office. "We look forward to having very strong and solid discussions."

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Trump has been criticized for not publicly condemning the Turkish leaders human rights record and for congratulating him on winning a mid-April referendum that was widely seen as a way for Erdogan to consolidate power in a more authoritarian way.

Despite Trumps praise, relations with the US and Turkey have been strained of late, and Erdogan brought a laundry list of complaints about American policies with him to Washington.

During private discussions, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence "raised the incarceration of Pastor Andrew Brunson and asked that the Turkish Government expeditiously return him to the United States," the White House said in a statement.

After Erdogan left the White House, the complex was placed on lockdown when someone jumped a bike rack serving as a barrier on the north fence line along Pennsylvania Avenue. The suspect was quickly taken into custody, the US Secret Service said.

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Erdogan guards brutally attack demonstrators at Turkish ambassadors ...

A day after protests at the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., turned violent, the State Department is criticizing Turkey's government.

Video appears to show security forces belonging to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pushing past police and violently breaking up a protest outside the ambassador's diplomatic residence.

Some of the protesters were knocked down and kicked repeatedly in the head. Nearly a dozen people were injured.

Investigators with the Metropolitan Police Department are working with the Secret Service and the State Department to identify the people on the videos.

The State Department issued a statement about Tuesday's melee:

"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."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday speaks to the media following meetings with President Trump at the White House. Hours later, protests at the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., would turn violent with his security team accused of brutality against protesters. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday speaks to the media following meetings with President Trump at the White House. Hours later, protests at the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., would turn violent with his security team accused of brutality against protesters.

It's not clear to what extent President Erdogan's full security team was involved.

"It's part of an unfortunate theme that surrounds many of his overseas trips," says Ishaan Tharoor, a foreign affairs writer for The Washington Post.

Tharoor talked to NPR's Audie Cornish during Wednesday's All Things Considered.

"Just last year, when Erdogan was back in the States for a summit on nuclear security, at Brookings, outside Brookings, [in Washington, D.C.], there were similar protests and similar unseemly scenes of clashes along Massachusetts Avenue. There have been incidents involving his security detail in Ecuador. And in general, Erdogan is a figure who presides over profound political polarization back home.

"He has, in many senses, further deeply divided Turkey and builds his politics on a kind of very vehement nationalism that leads to these kinds of scenes among the diaspora overseas. And at the same time, of course, he is somebody who survived a coup attempt last year. So for him, and presuming for a security detail, opposition and especially vocal opposition they don't take it very lightly."

Two men were arrested at the scene, and police intend to pursue charges against others involved, the Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement on Wednesday.

"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 every day," the police statement said. "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."

The Turkish Embassy in a statement blamed the violence on the demonstrators:

"Groups affiliated with the PKK, which the U.S. and Turkey have designated as a terrorist organization, gathered yesterday without permit in Sheridan Circle in the immediate vicinity of the Ambassador's Residence, while the President of Turkey was visiting the Residence.

"The demonstrators began aggressively provoking Turkish-American citizens who had peacefully assembled to greet the President. The Turkish-Americans responded in self-defense and one of them was seriously injured."

The U.S. announced last week that it would arm Kurdish fighters in Syria, a move Erdogan is against because he says they are linked to the Kurdish insurgency in Turkey known as the PKK.

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 meeting between the two leaders happened hours before the demonstration turned violent.

An attorney for Ayten Necmi, 49, one of the protesters who was arrested, told The Washington Post that he blamed D.C. police and the Secret Service for "being surprised" by the large turnout and overreacting.

Protest organizer Seyid Riza Dersimi, 61, told The Post that he was injured in the violence and needed stitches.

"This is what happens in Turkey this is not what happens in the U.S.," he told the paper. "The American police let them attack us."

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Video Appears To Show Erdogan's Guards Clashing With D.C. Protesters ...