Vol. 81/No. 22 June 5, 2017
Ankara’s thugs attack DC Kurdish protesters
Earlier in the day, some 75 protested Erdogan’s state visit outside the White House, where he was meeting with President Donald Trump. They carried signs demanding freedom for Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag — jailed leaders of the Kurdish-based Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) — called for an end to Ankara’s repression of the Kurds in Turkey, and protested his regime’s recent bombing of Kurdish liberation fighters in Syria and Iraq.
Lucy Usoyan of the Ezidi Relief Fund, who was beaten in the head and back and suffered a concussion, told the Militant that 40 to 50 supporters of Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) were outside the ambassador’s residence when the protesters arrived from the White House.
The attack began when Erdogan’s motorcade arrived at the residence. A video widely posted on the media shows Erdogan speaking to an aide. “He says attack,” someone says in Turkish. Seconds later the assault began.
“The AKP supporters began cursing and screaming, so we moved to the grass to put some distance between us,” Usoyan said. “Erdogan’s thugs in black suits and others in khaki pants, who were armed, charged and beat us. This cannot go unanswered.”
The Turkish Embassy responded by trying to turn the victims into the criminals, claiming Erdogan’s security detail acted in self-defense and terrorist-baiting the protesters. Its statement falsely said the violence was caused by “groups affiliated with the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party], which the U.S. and Turkey have designated as a terrorist organization.”
Ankara threatens Kurds in Syria
Before the attack Erdogan met with Trump, who praised the Turkish ruler as a strong ally in the fight against Islamic State and PKK “terrorism.”
On his return to Turkey, Erdogan announced he was extending Ankara’s state of emergency indefinitely. The clampdown is aimed at silencing his domestic opponents, above all the 15 million nationally oppressed Kurds who make up 20 percent of the population of Turkey.
The state of emergency was declared in July 2016 following a failed coup led by a section of the Turkish military. Since then Erdogan won an April constitutional referendum by a thin majority, giving him presidential powers to rule virtually by decree. Tens of thousands have been jailed in the purge.
HDP elected officials and others have been targeted with frame-up “terrorism” charges. Erdogan says he is considering bringing back the death penalty.
Ankara has denounced the U.S. military’s alliance with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which leads the Syrian Democratic Forces in the offensive to capture the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State. He claims the YPG like IS is a terrorist organization and has threatened to bomb YPG fighters again.
Ankara fears that YPG advances will inspire the Kurdish struggle in Turkey. Washington has tried to allay Erdogan’s fears. The U.S.-YPG alliance is “temporary, transactional and tactical,” State Department official Jonathan Cohen said May 17. “We have not promised the YPG anything. We have the YPG because they are the only force on the ground ready to act in the short term. That is where it stops,” he said.
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