You Will Anyway: Turkey's Thugs on US Soil

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Turkey's Thugs on US Soil

You probably know that there was a melee when Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's bodyguards attacked Kurdish protesters in DC outside the Turkish embassy when Erdoğan was here.

In case you missed it, here's video:

Not a lot of punches thrown, but an awful lot of kicking going on.

The State Department issued a strong protest to Turkey on Wednesday, a day after visiting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security guards and supporters kicked and beat protesters in a scuffle in downtown Washington.

[...]

“We are communicating our concern to the Turkish government in the strongest possible terms,” the State Department said in a statement. “Violence is never an appropriate response to free speech.”

LA Times

We'll remember that.

The Secret Service said it was working "to aggressively pursue accountability for those involved in yesterday’s protests."

In a statement, Peter Newsham, police chief for the District of Columbia, complained of a “brutal attack on peaceful protesters.”

[...]

Police said two people were arrested and 11 others, including a police officer, were injured. Police said they are working with the State Department and Secret Service to identify Erdogan guards who they believe instigated the melee.

[...]

In March last year, Erdogan’s security detail also roughed up demonstrators and some journalists when he appeared at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.

Here's another reportof the incident:

Borazan — a Kurd from Turkey who came to the US in 2013 — told BuzzFeed News that she and the others were at the protest "to make our voices heard."

"But suddenly Erdogan's bodyguards — I'm pretty sure it was them — attacked all of us," she said.

[...]

Borazan said that the man put her in a headlock "to the point where he popped a blood vessel in my eye."

[...]

Borazan told BuzzFeed News that the man called her a "bitch" in Turkish and told her, "I'm going to kill you, you're dead, you are gone." A video clip of the attack was shared on social media.

[...]

The Turkish Embassy, meanwhile, released a statement blaming the violence on demonstrators who "began aggressively provoking" Turkish-American citizens who had assembled to greet Erdogan.

Buzzfeed

Sure, sure. That's what happened.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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Life, as Explained in "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead"

GUILDENSTERN: What a fine persecution---to be kept intrigued without ever quite being enlightened.

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ROSENCRANTZ : The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come on in a minute.

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GUILDENSTERN: But for God's sake what are we supposed to do?!

PLAYER: Relax. Respond. That's what people do. You can't go through life questioning your situation at every turn.

GUILDENSTERN: But we don't know what's going on, or what to do with ourselves. We don't know how to act.

PLAYER: Act natural. You know why you're here at least.

GUILDENSTERN: We only know what we're told, and that's little enough. And for all we know it isn't even true.

PLAYER: For all anyone knows, nothing is. Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true. It's the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn't make any difference so long as it is honoured. One acts on assumptions.

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GUILDENSTERN : We act on scraps of information... sifting half-remembered directions that we can hardly separate from instinct.

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PLAYER: Life is a gamble, at terrible odds-if it was a bet you wouldn't take it.