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Turkey summons US ambassador over treatment of brawling bodyguards

Turkey has summoned the US ambassador to protest “aggressive” action taken against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bodyguards after they became involved last week in a violent brawl with protesters in Washington.

The action appeared to be in retaliation to calls in the US for strong action against the Turkish security officers who were seen hitting and kicking protesters outside the Turkish ambassador's residence during Mr Erdogan's visit.

Two members of the security team were briefly detained before being released, but calls are growing for a more forceful US response to violence on American soil.

A group of pro-Erdogan demonstrators shout slogans at a group of anti-Erdogan Kurds in Lafayette Park as Turkey's Erdogan met with President Trump nearby at the White House in Washington - Credit: Reuters
Credit: Reuters

Republican Senator John McCain has said the government should "throw their ambassador the hell out" of the US.

Samantha Power, former US ambassador to the United Nations, tweeted that "clearly Erdogan's guards feel complete impunity, drawing on tools of repression they use at home & knowing he has their back, no matter what."

Turkey's foreign ministry said John Bass, the US ambassador to Ankara, was given a "written and verbal protest" over the treatment of the two security officers that it said were "contrary to diplomatic rules and practices."

The ministry said it told Mr Bass there were "lapses of security" during Mr Erdogan's stay and criticised "the inability of US authorities to take sufficient precautions at every stage of the official programme."

However, the ministry said it emphasised to Mr Bass that this would not overshadow an otherwise "successful and important visit".

The unseemly incident, and the subsequent handling of it, threatens already strained ties between Turkey and the US.

The two Nato allies who are at odds over a US policy to arm Syrian Kurdish rebels fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group in Syria. Turkey considers the rebels to be terrorists, the US seems they as its best ally in defecting the jihadists.

The development came as more than 220 suspects, including over two dozen Turkish former generals, went on trial on Monday accused of being among the ringleaders of last year's attempted coup against Mr Erdogan.

Furious protesters outside the court in Sincan, outside Ankara, demanded the death penalty and flung rope nooses at the defendants as they were marched into the building handcuffed and held by the security forces.

Turkey blames the failed July 15 putsch on US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a claim he strongly denies, and has launched a relentless purge against those deemed to have backed the plot.

Akin Ozturk, a former air force commander, was the first in a long line of defendants.

Mr Ozturk vehemently denied any link to the coup bid in his address to the court.

He described how he devoted his life to the Turkish military and said the charges were "unfair accusations".

"These accusations are for me the greatest punishment," he said.

"The commanders who have fostered me, and my army friends, know well that I played no part in this treacherous coup attempt. In fact, I had no idea."

The trial is one of many being held across the country to judge the coup suspects in what is the biggest legal process of Turkey's modern history.

More than 47,000 people have been arrested on suspicion of links to the Gulen movement in an unprecedented crackdown under the state of emergency.

Tens of thousands of teachers, lecturers, judges, police officers and government employees have since been dismissed from them jobs, accused of sympathy for Mr Gulen, whom Ankara is trying to extradite.

Turkey terror attacks

 

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