Generational Dynamics World View

[John J. Xenakis]

*** 18-May-17 World View -- Turkey's Erdogan leaves empty-handed as his security forces attack protesters in Washington

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Washington shocked as Turkey's security forces attack peaceful protesters
  
• Turkey's Erdogan leaves empty-handed from meeting with Trump
  

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**** Washington shocked as Turkey's security forces attack peaceful protesters
****


Erdogan and Trump after their meeting on Tuesday (AP)

It's common to read about national security forces in other countries
bashing peaceful anti-government protesters, but it's a shock for it
to happen in Washington DC. But that's what happened on Tuesday
evening, when Turkey's security forces brutally attacked peaceful
protesters in from of the Turkish embassy.

The attacks occurred shortly after Turkey's president Recep Tayyip
Erdogan met with president Donald Trump in the White House, and then
returned to the Turkish embassy.

Witnesses, backed by social media video, say that Erdogan's security
forces broke through DC police lines and attack protesters outside the
embassy carrying the flag of the Kurdish PYD party.

Some social media video shows Turkish officials dressed in suits
beating and punching people in the crowd and, in at least one case,
kicking out at a woman lying on the ground curled up to protect
herself.

The PYD is a left-wing Kurdish political party in Syria affiliated
with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a terrorist group that has
conducted numerous terrorist attacks in Turkey, and has conducted an
on-and-off civil war in Turkey for decades. There were 11 people
hurt, including on US police officer. Washington DC police called in
reinforcements and separated the two sides, making two arrests.

It's possible that the perpetrators of the attack cannot be prosecuted
because they have diplomatic immunity. However, some analysts say
that diplomatic immunity does not apply to the security detail
traveling with a foreign leader.

This is not the first such incident. In March of last year, Erdogan
was on his way to visit the Brookings Institute in Washington to give
a speech. While he was en route, Erdogan's security personnel
kicked both Turkish and Western journalists and protesters in front of
the Brookings building.

An even worse incident occurred in Ankara in December of last year,
when a member of Turkey's security forces shot and killed Russia's ambassador to Turkey.

The US State Dept issued this statement on Wednesday morning:

> [indent]<QUOTE>"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."<END QUOTE>[/indent]

NY Times and Times of Israel and US News and Foreign Policy (1-Apr-2016) and US State Dept.

Related Articles

• Russia, Turkey scramble to mend relations by blaming US for assassination (21-Dec-2016)
  

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**** Turkey's Erdogan leaves empty-handed from meeting with Trump
****

Turkey's media are putting a positive spin on the outcome of Tuesday's
meeting of Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan with president
Donald Trump. They're emphasizing the friendly smiles and handshakes,
as well as the "new awakening" in relations between the two countries,
without focusing on the fact that Erdogan left the meeting
empty-handed.

Erdogan had two major agenda items for the meeting:

• Last week, the US military announced that it would supply
  weapons to the Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) in Syria, as
  they approach the final battle to recapture the city of Raqqa from the
  so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh). The weapons
  include small arms, mortars, heavy machine guns, shoulder-fired
  weapons and ammunition. Turkey says that the YPG are terrorists
  affiliated with the PKK, while the US military considers the YPG to be
  the most effective fighting force in Syria against ISIS. Erdogan had
  hoped to convince Trump to reverse the decision to arm the Kurds, but
  as far as is known, there was no such agreement.
  
  
• Erdogan would like the US to extradite Fethullah Gulen back to
  Turkey, as they blame him for the failed coup in Turkey July 15 of
  last year. I've always considered the accusation fanciful, as Gulen
  is a 76-year-old political enemy of Erdogan, living in the Pocono
  Mountains in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, as if Fethullah Gulen had
  directed the coup himself from his easy chair. There have been no
  reports that Trump has agreed to extradite Gulen.

However, Trump and Erdogan did agree that they should both "fight
terror."

The meeting between Trump and Erdogan lasted only 22 minutes,
suggesting that it might have been simply a preparatory meeting for
further negotiations in the future. VOA and Hurriyet (Turkey) and Daily Sabah (Turkey)

Related Articles

• Final push to expel ISIS from Raqqa, Syria, to begin in June (16-May-2017)
  
  
• Turkey's 'shameful day for free press' as government seizes Zaman media (06-Mar-2016)
  

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
PYD, Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK, Raqqa,
Brookings Institute, People's Protection Units, YPG,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh,
Fethullah Gulen

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John J. Xenakis
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