Saturday, April 2, 2016

Erdoğan's security guards act like they are in Turkey during his visit to the US

Turkish security struggle to take a sign away from protesters in front of the Brookings Institute.
Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters        

Erdoğan's security guards attacked journalists and protesters on the streets of Washington, DC, right before he was about to arrive at the Brookings Institution. According to Foreign Policy, "Brookings President Strobe Talbott told a Turkish official that the organization was prepared to call off the visit even though Erdogan’s motorcade was already en route to the event." The Brookings Institution acknowledged the "harassment on the part of Turkish security personnel." As reported by the Guardian, Amberin Zaman, a public policy scholar at the Wilson Center and former Economist correspondent in Turkey, stated that "This is not unusual behavior for his security detail. They act with impunity and there is no evidence they are reprimanded for it. I would like to think we’re safe in the United States but we’re not. We’re vulnerable to bullying by Mr Erdoğan’s security detail even in the capital.”