American activists opposed to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan want to know if he personally ordered the violent disruption of a protest Tuesday in the U.S. capital, and say President Donald Trump needs to stand up for them.

Video released Thursday shows that Erdogan watched his supporters, including members of his security detail, charge toward protesters in the grassy Sheridan Circle, punching and kicking them before police restored order.

Just before chaos erupted, an aide bent over Erdogan, who was seated in the back seat of a car in the driveway of the Turkish ambassador's home. The aide communicated with another man who ran toward protesters. Seconds later, Erdogan supporters were breaking through the police line.

The city’s chief of police called it “a brutal attack on peaceful protesters" and prosecutors are weighing possible charges. American politicians and the State Department condemned the attack, calling it an unacceptable suppression of free speech rights.

"If you can show President Erdogan ordered the attacks, some countries would consider that an act of war," says Lacy MacAuley, an anti-Erdogan activist who led a small Friday protest at the scene of the clash.

MacAuley, who says she was assaulted by Turkish security in a separate incident blocks away Tuesday, pointed a megaphone at the Turkish ambassador's residence Friday and shouted "Erdogan is a fascist!"

Ruken Isik, a Kurdish-American U.S. citizen who was in Sheridan Circle Tuesday with her 4-year-old son, also wants to know if Erdogan ordered the attack.

"We never expected something like this to happen in the U.S. Our president should say something," Isik says. "Can you imagine Trump going to Turkey and giving an order to his bodyguards to attack people? People who are not even violent?"

After welcoming Erdogan to the White House on Tuesday, Trump departed for his first foreign trip as president. He has not publicly commented on the incident, though the State Department says it summoned Turkey's ambassador.

Isik says she and other protesters chanted "baby killer Erdogan!" and "terrorist Erdogan!" before Erdogan's men charged. She fled with her son after a friend was grabbed by the neck, as depicted in a widely circulated photo.

"We were women, elderly men and had two kids. This was our group. We weren't violent at all," she says.

A police officer and 11 other people were injured during the confrontation, authorities say.

Flint Arthur, another Erdogan opponent who was in Sheridan Circle on Tuesday, says he watched the video of Erdogan's interaction with staff before the assault and says "circumstantially it points that he in fact ordered the attack on my friends and I."

Video: Erdogan watches attack:



"He’s responsible for it no matter what," adds Arthur, an American who says he was hit in the head and kicked in the leg during the fracas. "Many of them are hand-picked by him… he’s an authoritarian tyrant."

Arthur and many other participants support the YPG Syrian Kurdish militia, which is fighting the Islamic State group alongside the U.S. military. The YPG is regarded as a terrorist organization by the Turkish government, which occasionally bombs the group, because of its links to Kurdish insurgents in Turkey.

An employee of the Turkish embassy in Washington tells U.S. News that “of course it's not accurate” to claim that Erodgan ordered the attack. He said the embassy’s press team would need to provide an official statement.

The embassy's press team, which on Thursday claimed anti-Erdogan protesters “aggressively provok[ed] Turkish-American citizens” who “responded in self-defense,” did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokesman for the Turkish foreign ministry also did not respond to a request for comment. Friday is a holiday in Turkey and a foreign ministry employee said over the phone that only emergencies were being addressed.

A U.S. State Department official confirmed on background to reporters Thursday that “two members of the Turkish security detail were briefly detained during the altercations and subsequently released." CNN reports the men returned to Turkey.

It's unclear why the Turkish security officers were allowed to leave the country. Legal experts tell U.S. News it's unlikely traveling security guards enjoy diplomatic immunity.

In addition to the footage of Erdogan, The Daily Caller reports that audio from the clash may feature an order to attack being relayed in Turkish.

Gunay Evinch, co-chairman of the Turkish American National Steering Committee --which organized pro-Erdogan rallies Tuesday at the White House and at the Turkish embassy a couple blocks from the clash -- says Kurdish activists started the fight, though he did not arrive on-site until the altercation was ending.

Even though Erdogan supporters are seen in footage shoving past a police line, Evinch claims Kurdish activists crossed Massachusetts Avenue and "advanced upon Turkish Americans” in a “surprise attack” featuring “pure violence out of nowhere."

It’s unclear if any published footage would support that version of events.

“I do not think there will be any prosecution against the Turkish security detail who filled in where [D.C. police] and Secret Service were lacking," Evinch says.

In addition to the two Turkish personnel who were briefly detained, local police arrested two activists, charging Necmi Ayten of Woodside, New York, with aggravated assault and Jalal Kheirabadi of Fairfax, Virginia, with assaulting a police officer.

Both arrestees initially were identified as Erdogan opponents, but Evinch -- an attorney -- says Ayten is not and that he assisted him ahead of an initial court appearance where he learned the charge would be a misdemeanor. He claims that despite being arrested Ayten “was not present at the altercation.”

Evinch says a Canadian Turk named Alp Dereci, who he describes as a tourist, was among the most seriously injured, requiring 28 stitches after being hit on the head with a megaphone by a “YPG attacker.”

The story of Dereci's injury invites fierce disagreement from Arthur, who says the megaphone was hurled in defense of an Erdogan opponent who was being attacked.

Arthur says Evinch clearly is incorrect about Erdogan opponents being the aggressors.

Video: Footage of the attack:



"That's all lies," he says. "There's no video to corroborate it because it's untrue. However there is ample video of them crossing the police line and attacking us."

The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia supported by protesters Tuesday and again Friday has attracted volunteers from around the world who support its fight against jihadist groups and its left-wing ideology.

Two American YPG volunteers attended the Friday protest.

Mike Fonda, who served with the YPG in 2015, and a volunteer named Lucas who says he returned to the U.S. seven months ago, said they weren't surprised by Erdogan's actions, pointing to his military's attacks on the YPG, including an airstrike that killed American Michael Israel last year.

Two Turkish Americans appeared at the site of the Friday protest to pay their respects to a statue of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic. They complained that Erdogan is undoing Atatürk's secular reforms and suppressing dissent.

"They need to respect other countries' rules and laws," said a Turkish-American woman who says she has lived four decades in the U.S.

"It's a free country," said a Turkish-American man, who said it was unfortunate that Erdogan "brought all his buddies here."

"He believes this is Turkey, that he can do whatever he wants," the man said, requesting not to be identified for fear of consequences from Erdogan's government.

Isik, who got away with her son unharmed, says Americans should see the incident in a larger context.