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Videos of Tuesdays clash outside the Turkish ambassadors residence in Washington show a violent and chaotic scene: guards for the visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan charging, beating and stomping people peacefully protesting that countrys policies.

Baton-waving D.C. police officers forcefully break up the melee and separate the two sides, then turn to tend to bloodied protesters as the guards, some of them armed, retreat to the safety of their diplomatic compound.

The fracas, captured on video and widely spread in traditional and social media, sparked outrage and stern words from many U.S. politicians and calls for the ambassadors expulsion.

D.C. police vowed to continue their investigation of the confrontation. But several law enforcement experts said its likely little will come of it.

Issues of diplomatic immunity would make any prosecution difficult, if not impossible, they said. And the leveling of charges might embolden other countries to ignore similar immunity agreements, putting U.S. diplomats abroad at risk. Most experts said police did the right thing, focusing on stopping the attacks and limiting the injuries.

The outcome may not satisfy everybody, but they dont understand the intricacies of dealing with people with diplomatic immunity, said Charles H. Ramsey, who has headed both the District and Philadelphia police departments. Nobody is going to leave this happy, and they may not agree with the decision, but it is what it is.

[Erdogans guards clash with protesters in D.C.]

The State Department on Wednesday summoned Turkeys ambassador for a meeting, the equivalent of a diplomatic scolding.

D.C. police arrested two men during the incident, neither affiliated with the Turkish Embassy. A State Department official confirmed two members of Erdogans security detail also were detained but were then released, conforming to the customs of international law that affords heads of state and members of their entourage with inviolability from arrest and detention.

Ramsey and some other authorities said police handled the disturbance smartly by separating the antagonists and leaving it to others to sort out culpability and criminality. He said even if the officers didnt immediately grasp that the guards were potentially immune from arrest, they would have known that a fight outside an ambassadors residence was more complex than a simple dispute.

The officers in D.C. are well trained, Ramsey said. They are very familiar with these unique kind of circumstances. This is not your typical city.

But Eugene ODonnell, a former police officer and prosecutor in New York City, said the videos show that D.C. police had not adequately prepared for a potential clash and that the officers appeared neutered and paralyzed as they tried to restore order.

He questioned granting the Turkish security guards any leniency.

It cant be right that all you have to have is a suit and a lanyard around your neck and you can tear into peaceful protesters, said ODonnell, who teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and has trained foreign police forces. Diplomatic immunity cant be a license to attack people at will. The cops see people beating others into submission, and I think theyre convinced it was above their pay grade to act.

D.C. police on Friday defended their handling of the incident, saying in a statement that officers displayed sound decision-making and professionalism. On Wednesday, Police Chief Peter Newsham said that the situation was very dicey for officers because the Turkish guards carried guns, and Newsham commended the officers for stopping the melee without more significant injury.

The nations capital frequently attracts protesters, and this past year has seen more than usual, making known their views about President Trump, human rights, wars, dictators, police tactics, entanglements in far-off lands and issues closer to home. They can be tiny groups or hundreds of thousands of people taking their message to the leader of the free world. Some peaceful, some not, all are a backdrop to the Districts routine rhythm.

D.C. police and Newsham have been judged by the handling of public dissent from the mass arrests at Pershing Park in 2002 that violated civil liberties and cost the District millions in civil settlements to Januarys arrests of more than 200 during a violent disturbance during Trumps inauguration.

Each demonstration is fraught with its own political agendas, and police are expected to assume a neutral role to allow free speech while preventing violence.

District officials said they are reviewing video from Tuesday to identify attackers and possibly obtain arrest warrants. Newsham said Wednesday that he had talked with State Department and Secret Service officials and is very encouraged about their cooperation. He said issues over diplomatic immunity wont prevent us from doing what we have to do.

In Congress, lawmakers called for barring the guards from the United States and even for kicking the Turkish ambassador out of the country. But criminal justice experts say that is unlikely.

I understand everybody wants justice and fairness, said Roscoe C. Howard Jr., the U.S. attorney for the District from 2001 to 2004. It just doesnt work all the time.

Howard said police exhibited proper restraint. You start putting those guys in handcuffs, he said, referring to the Turkish guards, it ends up going from a local melee to an international incident.

[After Erdogan meets Trump, Turkey calls for ouster of American envoy to anti-ISIS coalition]

Howard said any decision on whether to take action must consider the greater context of international relations, such as Turkeys cooperation in the fight against the Islamic State and its role in accepting people fleeing the war in Syria.

Its not what happens here, Howard said. Its what happens in Turkey. ... We tell the guards they are no longer welcome in our country, and Turkey is going to randomly pick folks from the U.S. Embassy and say they have to get out. He said he knows its a raw deal for the guy with his head bashed in or teeth missing. Hes going to feel he wasnt given a fair shake.

Turkeys semiofficial news agency cast the melee as a failure of D.C. police, saying they did not stop the anti-Erdogan protest. The government later alleged that its guards had responded in self-defense to terrorists it said had joined the protesters.

Demonstrators denied the presence of militants and alleged that police stood by as Turkish thugs attacked. One video shows a man lean into a car where Erdogan was sitting, then signal to another man who then heads toward the protesters. Things quickly become chaotic, and other videos show more dark-suited men, some carrying furled red flags, kicking and punching protesters as police try to intercede. At one point, Erdogan emerges from the car and watches the scene.

[Was Erdogan personally involved in his bodyguards attacks on protesters in D.C.?]

W. Ralph Basham, who directed the Secret Service from 2003 to 2006, said the fact that D.C. police separated the two sides with minimal arrests appeared more a tactical decision than one born out of consideration of geopolitical ramifications.

The security detail attack on the demonstrators was pretty speedy and violent, and the police were trying to sort it all out, Basham said. They tried to push people to their neutral corners, but in this case there were no neutral corners. It was total chaos.

Carol Morello, Magda Jean-Louis and Perry Stein contributed to this article.

Excerpt from:
Plenty of tough talk for Erdogan guards, but action is unlikely, experts say - Washington Post

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.

View post:
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.

Read more:
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 ...