President Donald Trump welcomed Turkish dictator president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the White House Tuesday.

A group of protesters outside of the Turkish Embassy showed support for the groups that Erdogan regularly cracks down on in Turkey. Erdogan’s bodyguards did not appreciate this move and decided to pummel the protesters in broad daylight…on Embassy Row.

Police officials reported that nine people were hurt and two others were arrested. From The Guardian:

Doug Buchanan, a DC Fire and EMS spokesman, said two of those hurt were seriously injured and were taken to hospitals by ambulance. He said by phone that emergency personnel were called to the residence about 4:30pm Tuesday. According to witnesses, the brawl erupted when the Turkish president’s security detail attacked protesters carrying the flag of the Kurdish PYD party outside the residence.

Erdogan does not hide his feelings for the Kurds. He made it well known he does not appreciate Trump’s idea to arm the Kurds in order to combat ISIS:

“It is absolutely unacceptable to take the YPG-PYD into consideration as partners in the region, and it’s going against a global agreement we reached,” Erdoğan said, referring to the Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) in Syria. “In the same way, we should never allow those groups who want to change the ethnic or religious structures in the region to use terrorism as a pretext,” he added, suggesting that the Kurds were using the anti-Isis fight as cover for separatist nationalism.

Those at Legal Insurrection before I arrived tried to raise red flags about Erdogan. I raised a ruckus about him over at Breitbart.

So why does America tolerate him? Because Turkey is a member of NATO.

Back in August, Vijeta blogged about former Vice President Joe Biden demanding the Kurds to retreat even though they liberated the Syrian town of Manbij:

Biden’s stance is widely seen as an attempt to pacify Erdogan’s Turkey, alarmed by recent Kurdish gains against ISIS in Syria. Erdogan’s Turkey, after maintaining long tacit alliance with the Islamic State, has recently dispatched military troops into Syria — not to fight ISIS but to hold the line against Kurds. In contrast, Kurds of Syria and Iraq have proven themselves as the most reliable fighting force in war against the Islamic State.

After a failed “coup” in July, Erdogan cracked down on anyone he considered a foe and an ally of Fetullah Gullen, who he feels orchestrated the coup. Turkish officials filled prisons with professors for the rest of 2016. The government shut down 130 media outlets and detained over 47 journalists.

Human rights groups flooded the media with reports of officials raping and torturing the detainees. Those arrested have not been allowed lawyer visits.

In all, this fight on AMERICAN SOIL is nothing compared to what those in Turkey face with a president like Erdogan.

Erdogan’s bodyguards beat up Kurdish protesters in D.C. Just imagine what we are going through back in Turkey. https://t.co/4UhOfS27WJ — Mahir Zeynalov (@MahirZeynalov) May 17, 2017



