House of Representatives Votes to Condemn Violence Inflicted by Turkish Security on Protestors

During the middle weeks of May, violence broke out in Washington D.C. when Turkish officials attacked a group of protestors demonstrating outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence that day.  These demonstrators decided to exercise their right when Turkish President Erdogan came to visit the United States that day.

Regarding that incident, Turkish ambassador Huseyin Muftuoglu said, “The incident that took place in front of the Turkish Ambassador’s Residence during the visit of President Erdogan to Washington was caused as a result of the refusal of U.S. authorities to take necessary security measures, despite repeated official warnings.  There is no answer to the question why the U.S. authorities did not take tight security measures in front of the Ambassador’s Residence as they did in other stages of the visit.”

This statement in response attempted to justify the means of violence against the demonstrators.  But, the House of Representatives did not seem to take that into consideration—the House consequently approved a bipartisan resolution that condemned the attack on the peaceful demonstrators by the bodyguards of the Turkish government.  Backed by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Minority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the resolution shows an anger that the United States has against Turkey for this incident.

Speaker Paul Ryan insists that President Erdogan, along with other Turkish officials, condemns this act of violence and apologize on behalf of the respecting security forces for the “brutal behavior against innocent civilians exercising their First Amendment rights.”  The Trump administration has also been advised to not let the violence on U.S. soil to go unnoticed—some insist that this act must be punished and the Turkish government must waive their immunity on the bodyguards who carried out the violence.

Supposing that the Turkish government will not abide by such conditions, the United States will thus revoke diplomatic credentials of Turkish Ambassador Serdar Kilic and rescind visas of other Turkish officials.

            CBS News writes that the resolution, “approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, calls for ‘any Turkish security official who directed or participated in efforts by Turkish security forces to suppress peaceful protests outside of the Turkish ambassador’s residence’ to be charged and prosecuted under U.S. law.  The measure also tracks with the senators’ demands that the State Department seek waivers of immunity for any Turkish security detail members who engaged in assault.”

Taking offense to such criticism, the Turkish government seems to disagree with the resolution.  As events play out regarding the incident, many will see whether the Turkish government admits fault of the event or otherwise.

Featured Image via en.kremlin.ru