Search Results for: our two thugs

Lawsuit over Washington violence looms over US-Turkey relations.

January 3, 2019 By administrator

On a recent afternoon in a popular cafe in Washington’s Adams Morgan neighborhood, Murat Yasa, a veteran Kurdish activist, tears up, his burly frame shaking as he recalls the orgy of violence that erupted outside the residence of the Turkish ambassador to Washington on May 16, 2017. Yasa, a 61-year-old US citizen, was among a group of Kurdish men and women who had gathered in Sheridan Circle to demonstrate against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish leader was in town to meet with President Donald Trump that day and the group was peacefully protesting Turkey’s repression of their brethren with a volley of salty accusations. “Baby killer,” Yasa shouted as Erdogan’s sedan pulled into the driveway.

It wasn’t long before Yasa found himself semi-conscious in hospital along with nine other protesters after Erdogan’s bodyguards and thugs for hire set upon them. One yelled “Die Kurd” as they kicked and struck the demonstrators with discernible glee. Lucy Usoyan, a young Yazidi woman who was repeatedly hit on the head, fell unconscious, despite Yasa’s best efforts to shield her. The images captured on video and later subjected to forensic scrutiny leave no doubt as to what had transpired. “I didn’t know if I would ever see my children again,” Yasa said. “I thought I was dying.”

Nineteen months on, Yasa, who runs a floor-laying business in Virginia, suffers from dizzy spells and memory loss. His hands are unsteady. He is, he said, an altered man. But Yasa’s desire for justice is unwavering, with potentially bruising effects on Turkey’s already turbulent relationship with the United States.

In May, Yasa and a dozen and a half fellow victims filed a civil action lawsuit in US federal court against Turkey. They are demanding at least $300 million in compensation on multiple counts ranging from bodily harm to psychological trauma — including, in at least one case, damage to conjugal relations.

Prominent Washington litigator Steven Perles, who has won more than $6 billion in civil lawsuit judgments, has taken up their cause. Perles made national headlines when he helped land a $2.6 billion verdict against Iran for its alleged role in the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing that killed 241 US service members and a $1.5 billion ruling against Libya for numerous bombings, hijackings and other acts of terrorism in the mid-1980s.

A wiry figure full of nervous energy, Perles sounds every bit as tenacious now as he was then. During an interview at his sprawling offices on Connecticut Avenue, Perles told Al-Monitor that the tort case against the Republic of Turkey rests on the Foreign Sovereignties Immunity Act, which stipulates seven violations for which foreign governments can be sued in US courts. “I’d love to see Turkey argue that under US law, ‘We are entitled to beat up people on the streets of Washington, DC,’” Perles said. “No dictator gets to come to my country and beat up citizens of my country on my watch. I’ll take that argument all the way to the Supreme Court.”

Turkey has breezily denied any wrongdoing, branding the protesters as “terrorists” and the actions of its security forces as “self-defense.” Its reaction to the legal case so far has been to act as if it doesn’t exist. Turkey’s toothless media, which is almost fully controlled by Erdogan’s business cronies, has followed suit. A rare mention of the affair came when Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made a point of visiting the only two offenders to be arrested, both Turkish Americans, in their jail cell in the United States. Eyup Yildirim of New Jersey and Sinan Narin of Virginia faced a maximum of 15 years in prison for their actions, including stomping on Usoyan’s head. Hailing the pair as his “brothers,” Cavusoglu declared he brought them “love and greetings from Turkey.” Photographs of the encounter were splashed across the Turkish press. The pair walked free in late April of last year after striking a plea agreement.

In November 2017, federal prosecutors dismissed charges against seven members of Erdogan’s security detail who had been indicted by a federal grand jury that July on a slew of charges, including aggravated assault, conspiracy and hate crimes. Although the men had already left the country, the warrants seemed to carry a powerful message that foreign agents could not act with impunity on US soil. Then in February 2018, the cases against four others were quietly dropped, leaving only four guards on the hook.

Coming just before then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s first official trip to Ankara that same month, a strong whiff of diplomatic appeasement hung in the air. The Trump administration was trying to secure the release of North Carolina pastor Andrew Brunson and to calm Turkish fury over its continued support for the Syrian Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG). The militants are an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been waging a bloody fight with Ankara since 1984.

Another Major Erdogan Corruption Scandal; This Time on US Soil

October 22, 2018 By administrator

By Harut Sassounian,

Not a week passes without the disclosure of another major scandal in Azerbaijan or Turkey. The latest such scandal was exposed by the Stockholm Center for Freedom in an article written by exiled Turkish writer Abdullah Bozkurt, titled: “Utah case exposes more dirt on Turkey’s Erdogan.”

The article reveals that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s corrupt tentacles reach into the United States, which makes the subject of this scandal of particular interest to Special Counsel Robert Mueller in connection with his Russia probe and “international organized crime network,” according to Bozkurt.

“A federal grand jury in Utah returned a sealed indictment on Aug. 1, 2018, naming Erdogan as the leader of a foreign country who met with highly controversial businesspeople in California and Utah in what was claimed to be a major money laundering and tax fraud case,” Bozkurt reported.

The indictment, unsealed on Aug. 24, 2018, charged that “Jacob Ortell Kingston, the chief executive officer, and Isaiah Kingston, the chief financial officer of Washakie Renewable Energy (WRE), by filing false claims for tax credits, obtained over $511 million in renewable fuel tax credits that were designed to increase the amount of renewable fuel used and produced in the US. Lev Aslan Dermen (Levon Termendzhyan), owner of California-based fuel company NOIL Energy Group with links to a transnational criminal enterprise, is also identified as a partner in this grand scheme. From 2010 through 2016, they fabricated documents and rotated products within the US as well as overseas to make it appear that they were engaging in real trade to qualify for the tax credits,” Bozkurt wrote.

The indictment stated that Jacob Kingston was arrested on Aug. 23, 2018, while on his way to Salt Lake City international airport headed to Turkey after he was tipped off. Bozkurt reported: “The Kingstons had already bought a luxury mansion in a seaside town in Turkey according to a wire transfer from a WRE account to Termendzhyan’s account at Turkey’s Garanti Bank on March 5, 2014. More wire transfers to Turkey were listed in the indictment. Jacob Kingston, who frequently traveled to Turkey to meet with top Turkish officials including Erdoğan, was often greeted like a VIP at the Turkish airport, was provided a police escort and did not even use his passport to enter Turkey according to witness testimony in the US indictment.”

Jacob Kingston first met Erdogan in New York in September 2017 when the Turkish President came to the US to attend the UN General Assembly. This meeting took place “after FBI raided the Kingston group’s properties on Feb. 10, 2016, and the revelations of the fuel tax scam had already made the headlines in Utah,” according to Bozkurt.

“In early November 2017, Jacob flew to Turkey to hold a series of high-level meetings in both Ankara and Istanbul. He tapped Sezgin Baran Korkmaz, the chairman of SBK Holding LLC, as the main conduit in Turkey, while he kept a separate investment and asset management firm, Mega Varlık Yönetim A.Ş., which was set up with equity of $450 million in Turkey,” Bozkurt wrote.

“Termendzhyan also has a company named SBK Holdings USA, which is a sister company to Korkmaz’s SBK Holding LLC in Turkey. Korkmaz was quoted as telling the Turkish press that his partnership with WRE has resulted in an investment valued at $1 billion and thanked Erdoğan for personally facilitating the business deals. According to the press release issued on Sept. 9, 2016, by the Turkish government’s Investment Support and Promotion Agency (ISPAT), WRE, the Noil Energy Group and SBK Holding LLC have made significant investments in Turkey and planned to do more. The partnership with SBK Holding began in 2013 with Noil Energy making the first batch of investments in real estate. Construction and real estate businesses comprise the prime source for ill-gotten proceeds for Erdoğan’s massive multi-billion-dollar wealth. The total investment reached $500 million with another half million dollars assigned to a Mergers and Acquisitions fund for operations in Turkey. The trio has made investments in all types of sectors including pharmaceuticals, automotive, chemicals, technology, glass, and food,” according to Bozkurt.

“With Erdoğan’s political backing and cover, SBK Holding has expanded its operations into various areas including finance, energy, real estate, defense, mining, industry, tourism, technology, and logistics. The company is mainly active in the finance industry through investment banking, asset management, and raw materials financing. It also has substantial interests in the energy sector that span both the US and Russian markets. Erdoğan was not bothered at all by the fact that Termendzhyan was already implicated in a major probe that was being conducted by the Department of Homeland Security for money laundering, tax evasion, and stolen oil. Edgar Sargsyan, the ex-president and former legal counsel for SBK Holdings USA, stated in his declaration filed in court on July 14, 2017, that Termendzhyan, a Russian [Armenian], is the head of a criminal organization. It is worth remembering that he was arrested in 1993 for a gas tax scam in the US, where the Russian mafia was known to have been actively involved in similar scams in the ’80s and ’90s. He was also charged with tax fraud and armed assault in the past and was convicted of battery in 2013,” Bozkurt reported.

Interestingly, “Korkmaz appears to be the main conduit linking the Kingstons and Termendzhyan to pro-Erdoğan businessman Ekim Alptekin, whose Dutch shell company Inovo BV hired former national security advisor Mike Flynn’s Flynn Intel Group to run a smear campaign and defame Muslim scholar Fethullah Gülen, a US-based cleric who emerged as the main critic of the Erdoğan regime. Flynn tapped former CIA director James Woolsey to do the work against Gülen in a meeting held with Korkmaz in California in August 2016. Woolsey and his wife had a meeting with both Korkmaz and Alptekin in New York City on Sept. 20, 2016, to discuss the proposal. On Sept. 19, 2016, Flynn met with Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the foreign minister of Turkey, and Berat Albayrak, Erdoğan’s son-in-law who is also a minister in his cabinet, to discuss another proposal to kidnap Gülen and whisk him away from US soil to Turkey. Two months later, on Nov. 8, 2016, Flynn published a poorly written, derogatory op-ed on The Hill news website about Gülen, which many suspected was penned by Turkish operatives, not Flynn. Flynn later admitted to making false statements including lying about the fact that Turkish government officials were supervising and directing the work. He also misrepresented his lobbying on behalf of the Erdoğan government and lied about the op-ed he published on The Hill website,” Bozkurt wrote.

Alptekin fled to Turkey after he was interviewed by the Mueller team in May 2017 and dodged the subpoena that was subsequently issued after investigators concluded that he had lied to them. Korkmaz was also ordered to testify before a grand jury in Washington on Sept. 22, 2017, over possible violations of federal criminal laws including the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). He also did not comply with this subpoena. “It was believed that money in the amount of some $450,000 that Alptekin’s Dutch shell company paid to Flynn, in fact, came from Korkmaz. The Utah indictment reveals that Termendzhyan fled to Turkey in August 2017 on the day state search warrants were executed on his home and office,” Bozkurt revealed.

“If there was an independent judiciary in Turkey, this would have been addressed first and foremost by the Turkish criminal justice system, and Erdoğan would have been forced to leave office in disgrace, at the very least. Most likely he and his thugs would have been sentenced to prison for breaking about a dozen Turkish laws. That is no longer possible since the corrupt Turkish president has crippled the judiciary, destroyed the independent media and suspended the rule of law in the aftermath of a major graft investigation in December 2013 that uncovered his corrupt practices involving highly controversial Iranian and Saudi businesspeople. Now we see US judicial action on Erdoğan’s crimes that extended all the way to American soil. This time he won’t have the political clout to cash in to derail or hush up the legal cases that implicate him. He unsuccessfully tried before in the Hakan Atilla case in New York, and he will likely suffer the same fate in the Utah case as well,” Bozkurt concluded.

American Lawyers Sue Turkey For Hundreds of Millions of Dollars

May 15, 2018 By administrator

Harut Sassounian

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

On May 16, 2017, during Turkish Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit with Pres. Doanld Trump in the White House, Erdogan’s bodyguards, unprovoked viciously attacked Kurdish and Armenian protesters who had gathered outside the residence of Turkey’s Ambassador in Washington, DC. Nine demonstrators were seriously injured!

According to the Washingtonian, “at a news conference on June 14, DC police chief Peter Newsham said that ‘rarely have I seen in my 28 years of policing the type of thing I saw in Sheridan Circle.’ The House of Representatives approved a resolution, 397–0, calling ‘for perpetrators to be brought to justice and measures to be taken to prevent similar incidents in the future.’”

Last July, a federal grand jury charged with assault 19 members of Erdogan’s bodyguards, most of whom had diplomatic immunity. As a result, they could not be arrested and were allowed to fly back to Turkey. Two Turkish-Americans were arrested and later sentenced to a year and a day in jail. Several months after this incident, the charges against most of Erdogan’s bodyguards were dropped on the eve of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to Turkey.

Fortunately, a group of Washington, DC lawyers were so outraged by the attacks and escape of Erdogan’s bodyguards back to Turkey that they decided last week to sue the Turkish government, two Turkish-Americans and three Turkish Canadians for “violations of international law and hate crimes, as well as assault, battery and false imprisonment.” On May 3, another American law firm filed a separate lawsuit by five of the protesters against Turkey.

The Washingtonian reported: “With the US government unable or unwilling to obtain justice for the Sheridan Circle victims, a group of DC lawyers set out to do so themselves. Douglas Bregman had little inkling of the riot, let alone what had provoked it. But what he saw on the news that night horrified him: ‘This guy [Erdogan] gets to come to our country, speak to the President at the White House, then send his thugs to bloody up American citizens just for speaking out?’”

The Washingtonian added: “Bregman, 68, runs a civil-practice law firm in Bethesda. Originally from suburban Philadelphia, he got a law degree from Georgetown University in the 1970s and put down roots. He lectures there and at Columbia University law school. Having participated in protests during the 1960s, he sees a need to defend freedom of speech from threats ‘like abuse of power,’ he says. Bregman phoned one of his associates, Andreas Akaras, a litigator at Bregman, Berbert, Schwartz and Gilday. ‘Did you see what happened today at Sheridan Circle?’ he asked. Akaras had joined Bregman’s firm after seven years as an aide to Maryland congressman John Sarbanes. He’d worked on a range of issues related to southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean and developed contacts in Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, and Israel. Bregman asked him to investigate whether any legal restitution was available to the victims.”

Bregman then contacted fellow longtime DC attorney Steve Perles. “I have this case that will rely on the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act [FSIA],” Bregman said. “You’re the guy who can do it.” Perles has a long experience successfully suing Germany for Holocaust reparations and Iran and Libya to pay for damages for “terrorist acts.”

The Washingtonian reported: “working with Bregman and Akaras, Perles is preparing to file suit for hundreds of millions in damages from the Republic of Turkey. ‘Any foreign head of state who unleashes his security force against US citizens exercising their lawful rights on US soil has no protection under FSIA,’ Perles says. Other lawyers agree. A team headed by Agnieszka Fryszman of Cohen Milstein filed a victim-impact statement representing 13 victims of the Sheridan Circle attack, including Murat Yasa and Heewa Arya. The legal team has added Michael Tigar, who successfully sued the government of Chile for assassinating Orlando Letelier with a car bomb at Sheridan Circle in 1976.… Tigar says students at American University law school are putting together the case against Turkey. He’s confident in its strength. ‘It took 16 years, but we got to get $4 million from Chile,’ he says.”

Bregman told the Washingtonian: “Somebody needs to be punished. We are willing to put in the time and resources to push back against a fascist government so our clients are vindicated. It is well worth the effort.”

The Washington Post concluded: “under U.S. law, the Turkish government may fight, settle or refuse to defend against the lawsuits. In a refusal, a judge could enter a default judgment for the protesters.”

Accomplices of Erdogan Thug guards sentenced to prison for DC attack

April 6, 2018 By administrator

Two men were sentenced to one year and a day in prison Thursday for joining more than a dozen Turkish security officers who broke through a police line in May 2017 to attack protesters as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan watched.

The sentences may be the only ones ever handed down for what D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham called an “unprovoked and brutal attack on peaceful protesters,” after U.S. officials allowed other assailants to leave the country.

Sinan Narin and Eyup Yildirim admitted to kicking a woman and a senior citizen, respectively, as they lay on the ground — as seen in footage that outraged U.S. officials and contributed to worsening relations with Turkey.

Narin and Yildirim — both Turkish military veterans and naturalized U.S. citizens — wore orange jumpsuits. Handcuffs linked to chains around their waists, which clinked when they moved.

Judge Marisa Demeo called the attack in Sheridan Circle near the Turkish ambassador’s residence — as Erdogan arrived following a White House meeting with President Trump — “shocking” and “opposite of our democratic American values.”

But Demeo resisted calls for longer prison sentences.

“The fact that they were placed in jail, they were held in jail, and have been in jail for months serves as an adequate deterrent to others,” Demeo said. “It is a just punishment.”

The men did not speak, other than Yildirim saying “no thank you, your honor” to the opportunity. Both will get credit for time served.

Narin, who lives in Virginia, was working as a limo driver for Erdogan’s visit. Yildirim, his attorney said, drove from New Jersey out of national pride, not because he supports Erdogan or opposes Kurds, who were joined by a few Armenian and anti-authoritarian protesters.

Victims unsuccessfully called for harsher penalties during impact statements, arguing against plea deals that called for one year and a day in prison. Because the men had no criminal history, guidelines called for between six and 24 months in prison.

In pleading guilty, Narin admitted kicking Lusik “Lucy” Usoyan, a Yezidi Kurd from Armenia who became a U.S. citizen. Usoyan lost consciousness after being kicked by Narin and five other men — three identified in an indictment.

Usoyan told the court the incident affects her daily life, making her cautious around other people, easily disturbed by loud noises, and prone to panic attacks.

“I could have been killed, and I ask that you punish these criminals to the maximum extent of the law,” Usoyan said. She declined to comment after the hearing.

Yildirim, meanwhile, admitted kicking Sayid Reza Yasa in the back as he lay on the ground. Yasa, a U.S. citizen born in Turkey, suffered broken teeth and a concussion, and said he continues to have trouble with memory. Because he was over 60, his assailants — five out of six identified in an indictment — were charged with assaulting a senior citizen.

Yasa, a Kurd who said he moved to the U.S. to avoid political persecution, said he was disappointed by the sentences.

“It’s telling the fascist Turkish-Americans here it’s okay to attack the peaceful protesters here, you can kick them. Just 12 months? I’m disappointed,” he said outside the courtroom.

As victims of the attack gathered in a court lobby, a supporter of Narin and Yildirim walked toward an escalator flashing a hand sign representing a wolf, a gesture used by Turkish nationalists that victims interpreted as a threat.

Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, recorded video of the man making the Turkish nationalist gesture.

Attack victim Mehmet Tankan, who was punched and kicked by seven men — five of them identified in an indictment — told the Washington Examiner that “I think I’m not going to protest against them again” because he doesn’t believe there was much deterrence in the prison sentences.

Golala Arya, a Kurdish-American from Iran, said she wasn’t at the protest, but that her husband brought their then seven-year-old daughter, who she said was “traumatized” by the assault.

“What if they killed my dad?” her daughter asked.

Arya said she wanted to give a victim impact statement on behalf of her family, but was not allowed to do so when Demeo cut off victims not directly victimized by Narin or Yildirim. She had not submitted remarks for the record.

“Justice would have been served if the Turkish government was on trial, not two foot soldiers,” Arya said. She would have preferred “at least 10 years, at least” for Narin and Yildirim.

Abbas Azizi, one of three victims allowed to speak in court, and the only one not directly attacked by Narin and Yildirim, said outside the courtroom he believes the U.S. government brokered a backroom deal allowing for most charges to be dropped against Erdogan’s guards.

“Justice did not prevail,” he said.

Source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/courts/accomplices-of-erdogan-guards-sentenced-to-prison-for-dc-attack

‘Trust No One’: Exiled Azerbaijani Reporter Says He’s Being Hunted In Kyiv

March 19, 2018 By administrator

Fikret Huseynli was stabbed, beaten, and left for dead by unknown assailants in Baku in 2006.

Fikret Huseynli, a journalist who fled his homeland of Azerbaijan over a decade ago, says he got word early on March 5 that suspicious-looking men were trying to track him down in Kyiv.

Later that day, Huseynli told RFE/RL in a recent interview, four men whom he suspects were linked to the Azerbaijani security services turned up at the door of his rented apartment in the Ukrainian capital.

Claiming to be police and speaking both Ukrainian and Azeri, they told him they’d been sent to detain him and that he’d be extradited “within 48 hours” back to Azerbaijan, where Huseynli faces what he and supporters call trumped-up charges linked to his past reporting, much of it focusing on corruption at the highest echelons of power in the energy-rich Caucasus country.

“They tried to break down the door. They punched me, and I lost three teeth. With the help of others, I managed to close the door, and I escaped through the balcony,” Huseynli told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service in Kyiv on March 14.

Huseynli, a correspondent for the independent Azerbaijani online television channel Turan, has been stuck in the Ukrainian capital since October, when authorities stopped him from boarding a flight to Germany, seizing his documents under an Interpol red notice requested by Baku. He remains in legal limbo as Ukraine decides what to do with him.

International media watchdogs have urged Kyiv not to aid Baku in its efforts to track down critics beyond its borders, and to return Huseynli’s passport and other documents to him so he can return to the Netherlands, where he currently resides.

Ukrainian officials have been conspicuous in their silence, releasing few if any statements on Huseynli’s plight.

It’s not the first such case in Ukraine. An Uzbek journalist was detained at an airport in Kyiv in September on the basis of an Interpol red notice, an alert sent out to police worldwide notifying them about an arrest request from one of Interpol’s 192 member countries. Critics charge is often abused by repressive governments in order to pursue dissidents after they have fled abroad.

‘Lost Faith’ In Ukrainian System

Huseynli says that after the attack he headed for the the embassy of the Netherlands, the country that first granted him asylum, then citizenship, after he went into self-exile in 2008.

Along with human rights campaigners in Ukraine, staff at the embassy urged Huseynli to report what had happened with the police, advice he did not take.

“I don’t trust the police, the courts, no one. I’ve been in Ukraine for six months without any documents, completely helpless,” explains Huseynli.

Huseynli, describing himself as a “political hostage,” claims suspected security-service agents have been shadowing him in the Ukrainian capital.

“I continue to be watched. Some of them are Slavic looking, some are similar to Azeris. And these aren’t street thugs. I think they work for security services; maybe Azerbaijan’s, maybe Ukraine’s or Russia’s,” says Huseynli.

Huseynli has said elsewhere that on the day of the alleged attack, unidentified men approached him with an offer: report positively on the Azerbaijani government and negatively on the opposition. Do this, they allegedly said, and the extradition request is dropped. If you don’t, they warned, unclear repercussions would follow.

International press watchdogs have highlighted Huseynli’s predicament.

“We call on Ukrainian authorities to immediately return travel documents to Fikret Huseynli and allow him to leave Ukraine,” said CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova. “Kyiv must not be complicit with Azerbaijan authorities’ persecution of critics beyond its borders. We also call on Ukrainian police to investigate the March 5 physical attack on Huseynli, and bring the perpetrators to justice.”

Ukraine’s prosecutor-general did not respond to questions about the case from RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service.

Looking To Set Up A Bureau

Huseynli, the current head of the Amsterdam bureau of Turan, a Baku-based news agency that offers reporting in Azeri, Russia, and English on its website portal, arrived in Kyiv on October 7, 2017, to check out possibly opening a bureau in the Ukrainian capital.

Huseynli was about to board a flight to Dusseldorf at Boryspil International Airport on October 14 when he was arrested under a red notice issued by Interpol at the Azerbaijani government’s request. It accused him of “crossing a border illegally” and “fraud.”

Following his arrest, a Kyiv court ordered him held for 18 days pending examination of his appeal.

A Kyiv court on October 27 ordered the journalist’s release on bail but ruled that Huseynli should remain in Ukraine for two months while the Prosecutor-General’s Office investigated Azerbaijan’s extradition request, according to reports.

Ukrainian courts have twice extended the investigation term; the new deadline is March 20, 2018, according to the journalist.

“If I am killed or kidnapped or extradited to Azerbaijan in the near future, all responsibility lies with the Ukrainian authorities. What awaits me in Azerbaijan is a long prison term or death,” Huseynli wrote on his Facebook page on March 13.

No safety in exile as Turkish dissidents attacked abroad

January 20, 2018 By administrator

Turkish dissidents attacked abroad

Pinar Tremblay,

Outspoken Kurdish-German soccer player Deniz Naki was the victim of an armed attack in his car in Germany on Jan. 7. Naki was unharmed in the attack, which was not his first. He has been verbally and physically harassed multiple times by Turkish ultra-nationalists. Naki has a tattoo that reads “azadi,” “freedom” in Kurdish, and is not shy about showing his support on social media for Kurdish forces fighting the Islamic State or for the two academics who are on hunger strike demanding their jobs back. On his other arm Naki has a tattoo of his parents’ hometown of Dersim, which has a Kurdish-Alevi majority. In 2017 Naki was prosecuted for his social media posts allegedly in support of terrorism. He was given a suspended jail sentence.

The shots fired at Naki on a German freeway came just two weeks after People’s Democratic Party lawmaker Garo Paylan told the press he has been informed by Western officials that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) keep a list of dissenters to target. Several comments were shared on social media asking if this was the first of a series of assassinations. After the attack Paylan said, “The German and Turkish governments need to work together to take precautions against possible hate crimes.” It is not yet known who was behind the assault against Naki, but the German press reported that groups associated with the ultra-nationalists referred to as “Turan” or “Grey Wolves” have continued threatening Naki on social media since the attack. The pro-government Sabah Daily’s Europe edition ran a piece claiming the attack was a farce orchestrated by Paylan and that no one took Naki’s account seriously.

Al-Monitor surveyed a diverse group of Turkish dissidents who live in Europe and the United States and asked if they have observed any changes in the tone and intensity of harassment.

Amed Dicle, an occasional Al-Monitor contributor, is a Kurdish journalist who has dual citizenship and lives in Europe. He said, “I travel comfortably in Iraq and Syria, but not in Europe. Last week, I was told by officers [in the EU] to be careful. Particularly they warned me not to travel alone and to avoid trains. We are also cautioned not to travel to Germany frequently. It is not just me — a few other friends received similar warnings.”

A group of young Kurdish and Alevi college students in Berlin who hold Turkish passports concurred with Dicle. One of these students told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “We call them Nazi Ottomans. They are the unemployed, disenfranchised Turkish youths. Most of them do not even speak Turkish properly but they try their best to intimidate us. We believe they are getting paid by mainland Turks.” Their alleged photos have circulated on social media as well.

Barbaros Sansal, a prominent fashion designer and political activist who has suffered physical attacks and recently served jail time in Turkey for his outspoken criticism of the government, told Al-Monitor, “On July 15, 2017, at an Italian restaurant on Grote Markt in Brussels, I was having dinner with a politician and Belgian activist friend. Four thugs with Turkish flags came to the plaza and started harassing us with slurs and threats. We tried to prevent the restaurant owner from calling the police, because we did not want to complain about fellow Turks. But other diners were disturbed. The police came and took them into custody and I could go home only with a police escort. In September 2017, at Gent, Belgium, while I was having dinner, the thugs had made a plan to attack the restaurant but police intelligence stopped them. I again had to travel back with police escort. In November 2017, at the Berlin airport, a Turkish passenger tried to charge at me and my two female friends and police intervened. They leave threatening messages on my phones regularly. Dissidents in Europe are under surveillance and attack by teams commanded from Ankara.”

Arzu Yildiz is a journalist who decided to live abroad after being stripped of parental rights for her criticism of government policies. Yildiz left behind a toddler and a newborn baby. She told Al-Monitor, “No one who challenges the Turkish government is safe today. You are not safe if you are abroad, either. People are kidnapped from the streets even abroad, boarded on private planes and taken to Turkey. Embassies, consulates or even mosques have become entities to keep track of Turks abroad. Take the attack by Erdogan’s bodyguards in Washington, DC, for example. Yes, some of those who threw the punches were arrested, but how about those who gave the order?”

Aykan Erdemir is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington. He is a former lawmaker for the Republican People’s Party and in November, Turkish prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for him over mind-boggling allegations of supplying falsified documents to a New York court. He said, “Over the years, harassment and insults from pro-AKP social media accounts have evolved into threats of physical violence or death. Recently, one such account even went as far as to threaten to decapitate me. The intimidation campaign on social media goes alongside, and in an eerily coordinated manner, with the smear pieces in the pro-AKP news outlets. Meanwhile, I have observed that many of my dissident friends have made their social media accounts private or simply deleted them. This is an unfortunate indicator that intimidation and threats deliver results in Erdogan’s Turkey.”

Al-Monitor asked Fuad Kavur, a film director and producer who has lived in England since 1963, about how the challenges are different now from in 1980s, when Turkey experienced a military coup and several political dissidents had sought refuge in Europe. Kavur was denied permission to shoot his movie, “Memed My Hawk,” in 1980s Turkey. The movie was banned and censors made sure there was no Turkish news published about its international achievements. In 2018, things have changed, but not by much. Kavur said, “We will shoot the movie ‘Ataturk’ in Hungary. It has been an exceptionally long haul marked by not-so-discreet ‘interest’ by Ankara. Moreover, a week ago, I was horrified to read in Hurriyet Daily News about a pro-government Turkish journalist openly advocating for Turkey’s intelligence service to bump off a few dissidents.”

Al-Monitor posed the same question to Ayse Cavdar, an anthropologist and journalist who has been living in Germany for almost two years. She said, “Although our destination is the same, our stories differ significantly from those told by the previous generation. First, the conditions now are different. The problems are no longer generated by one agency. Today, all [Turkish] institutions have collapsed. They are corroded. And also, now it is a lot easier to get the news from Turkey. There is no need to wait for a letter or the newspaper to arrive. Now I can get news from each neighborhood or district daily.” Cavdar added that she is aware of the talk of Turkish nationalists in Germany hunting down dissidents. She said, “Those who will carry out the threats will be German citizens/denizens with Turkish heritage” in what she called a “contagious disease spreading from the wreckage of the Turkish institutional collapse.”

The punitive measures against dissidents have no limits. For example, Fatma Tunc, the wife of dissident writer Aziz Tunc, was recently forbidden from leaving the Istanbul airport. The authorities confiscated her passport and told her she has “dangerous family members.” Tunc’s son and husband live in Germany and she was on her way to visit them. Police told her, “Have your son and husband come back to Turkey.”

As Cavdar emphasized, political dissidents share one sentiment: Even if one lives in comfortable conditions in the free world, life can still be difficult when one feels a deep shame and sorrow for her homeland.

Beyond all these coordinated efforts to intimidate dissidents lies a paradox: Erdogan repeatedly tells his audiences that he does not care about the views of other countries or dissidents, whom he labels as traitors and liars. Why, then, this endless effort to silence them?

Pinar Tremblay is a columnist for Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse and a visiting scholar of political science at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

German Ministry Confirms Connection Between Violent Gang And Turkish Gov’t

January 6, 2018 By administrator

Turkish Gang

Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Interior has confirmed that they have been assessing the relations between a violent Turkish gang group, which is in guise of a rocker club, and the Turkish government under the rule of autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

A ministry spokesman has spoken to Kölner Stadt-Anzeige newspaper and said that they are assessing the relations between right-wing group Osmanen Germania and the Turkish government. “The “rocker-like” organization of Turkish nationalists that takes right-wing extremist positions maintain contacts with the “Erdoğan regime in the broadest sense,” the spokesman said.

Photos on the internet have proved personal contacts of leading members of the rapidly growing group in North Rhine-Westphalian (NRW) with representatives of Turkey’s Islamist ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)

Sebastian Fiedler of the Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter in NRW told the newspaper that even after nationwide raids it can be assumed that the Ottoman Germania would continue to receive “fresh money and backing from Ankara.”

On suspicion of money laundering, drug trafficking and weapon possession offences, the police had also acted against the group in NRW.

German media has previously reported on early December 2017 that Metin Külünk, a henchman of Turkish autocratic President Erdoğan and the ruling AKP deputy, gave order to the Turkish gang “Osmanen Germania – Ottomans Germania” and the Union of European-Turkish Democrats (UETD) to punish German TV presenter and comedian Jan Böhmermann over his alleged insult in a show targeting Erdoğan.

German newspaper Stuttgarter Nachrichten wrote that Böhmermann has been targeted by the Ottomans Germania, a Germany-based Turkish gang which is a staunch supporter of Erdoğan and the Erdoğan confidants, including Metin Külünk, ordered the thugs for punishment of the ZDF presenter.

Deutsche Welle (DW) also reported that in one tapped phone conversation, Külünk urged the former head of the UETD in Mannheim, Yılmaz Ilkay Arın, to get Osmanen Germania to punish German comedian Jan Böhmermann for his controversial poem criticizing Erdoğan.

“Osmanen Germania” describes itself as a boxing club and “brotherhood,” but authorities have long suspected it of being involved in criminal activity and violence. It is estimated to have 20 chapters and 2,500 members in Germany.

The Stuttgarter Nachrichten reported that the network of Erdoğan-related Turkish gang in Germany also turned against the ZDF presenter Böhmermann last year and Böhmermann was targeted by both the gang of Ottoman Germania, Erdoğan’s AKP and its extension in Europe, Union of European-Turkish Democrats (UETD).

According to a report, German police determined a phone call made by Yılmaz İlkay Arın, then acting chairman of the UETD in the Mannheim, to a Turkish migrants living in Germany. During the conversation, he made it clear that he accepted the orders given by an Erdoğan’s friend and AKP deputy Külünk. “My boss is Metin Külünk. I do what he tells me,” he said.

The report has also said that, at 16:33 on April 6, 2016, Külünk reportedly telephoned a member of the UETD in Germany. The man had asked Külünk to mobilize more UETD supporters to file criminal charges against Jan Böhmermann for insulting Erdoğan.

According to the report, the German security investigators come to a conclusion that “The orders to the Ottoman Germania group illustrates the intentions of the Turkish government to influence the media landscape, freedom of speech and press in Germany, among other purposes, with the active support of the UETD and the thugs of the Ottomans Germania.”

Basing on the German security agencies’ intelligence reports and wiretaps, Stuttgarter Nachrichten wrote that Yılmaz İlkay Arın and Mehmet Bağcı, the head of the Ottomans Germania gang and his men were to “carry out a punitive action with a critic of the Turkish President” on April 1, 2016.

It was interpreted by German intelligence that that critic is the ZDF presenter Jan Böhmermann, whose late-night satire show “Neo Magazine Royale” the day before assessed by Erdoğan’s fanatics as an insult to “Reis” which refers to the Turkish President Erdoğan. It was claimed in the report that Arın and Bağcı were given an order to punish Böhmermann.

According to the report, Arın called four days later again and wanted to know what is his assignment and take an order to investigate the ZDF moderator. Therefore he already knows where Böhmermann lives in Cologne, he found out his exact address from a contact named the “Uncle.”

German investigators assume that the codeword “Uncle” meant a contact with the police. However, German police has not determined the identity of this contact yet. The German security authorities warned Böhmermann to hide and he was protected by police.

In another phone call, he demanded that Yılmaz Ilkay Arın arm the Turks in Germany. In the call Arın says he has a stash of “clean” guns and ammunition.

According to a report by Der Spiegel, Külünk was also accused of “apparently giving money to the group to buy weapons several times.” Underlining Metin Külünk’s close relations with President Erdoğan, the German magazine reported that Külünk has established close ties with the German-Turkish gang “Ottoman Germania.”

The “Osmanen Germania – Ottomans Germania” gang was organized in 2014 under the guise of a boxing club, and has been on the agenda in Germany for a while. The gang is infamous for arms smuggling, human trafficking, drugs and attacks on Kurds and has grown fast, increasing membership and branch numbers.

It has since come to light that the Erdoğan government is behind this increase. The German media has released documents and information on the gang, stating that they act under the Külünk’s orders and are loyal to the Erdoğan regime. Külünk is just a bridge between the gang and Erdoğan. In phone calls caught by German security forces, Metin Külünk receives orders for the gang directly from Erdoğan.

NRW State Office for the Protection of the Constitution Chairperson Burkhard Freier spoke about the issue and stressed that the Turkish gang Osmanen Germania is a paramilitary organisation, and they are “prone to violence.”

Freier pointed out that the Osmanen Germania call themselves a boxing club and said that “For us, the Osmanen Germania working as security guards, carrying guns, engaging in violent crimes and clashing with other groups show that they are a paramilitary group. Their political agenda also strengthens this impression.”

According to a report by pro-Kurdish Fırat news agency, a German intelligence officer pointed out that the Osmanen Germania has a nationalist ideology and said that “The Osmanen Germania participate in the Turkish government’s demonstrations and are responsible for security there. For instance, they take care of security for the UETD – known for their ties to the Turkish state.”

According to NRW state, the Osmanen Germania work together with Turkish security forces. Freier said that “There are implications that Turkish state representatives have met with Osmanen Germania leaders Mehmet Bağcı and Selçuk Şahin. For instance AKP deputy Metin Külünk, who was given the task to unite the Turkish state and Turks in the diaspora, and Presidential Advisor İlnur Çevik have met with Osmanen Germania members. That shows that the Turkish government approves of Osmanen Germania’s goals.”

The DW reported that, in June 2016, specialists from the Hamburg criminal office observed Külünk personally hand Bağcı two envelopes in Berlin. The envelopes were believed to be full of money. Moments later Külünk called Erdogan and organized protests against the Armenian genocide resolution in the German parliament. Osmanen Germania participated in the protests. The police investigations suggest Osmanen Germania has contact with the UETD.

Külünk had given a speech in October 2016 at an event organized by the Swiss branch of UETD in Hoss Hotel in Winterthour, Switzerland and admitted that the Turkish government is targeting the opposition from Turkey in Europe. Külünk had said:

“Wherever the members of these organizations run to, this state will chase after them. This is not like writing stuff on Facebook pages. If they have the guts, they will come and write those things in Turkey. They will sit here and write things against Turkey – do you think they are not monitored? Don’t worry, they are all being followed. This is a duty, a state does not let go of those who betray the state. This shows the grandeur of the state. These people sit around in Basel, Zurich, Winterthour and write things against Turkey, hold meetings here and there. And Turkey is not supposed to follow them? They hold meetings here, they buy hotels, and the state is not supposed to follow them? No way.”

Phone taps have also indicated that Kulunk instructed Turks in Germany to “hit Kurds over the head with sticks,” film the act and provide videos to the Turkish state to be used as a “deterrent” against Erdoğan’s critics.

According to the DW report, German authorities have for some time worried about conflict between the Ottoman Germania and Bahoz (Storm), a rival Kurdish gang.

In November last year, raids had been carried out against the Osmanen Germania in several cities on orders by the Darmstadt Prosecutor’s Office under the Hessen State Criminal Bureau’s lead. Large amounts of drugs and weapons were seized in the raids and several people had been arrested.

According to report, the gang acted as a branch of the AKP and was organzied by the MİT. During a raid on November 9, 2016, a police officer spoke to German press and stated that they were in possession of documents that showed the possibility of the Osmanen Germania having ties to Turkish intelligence units and using the weapons they had procured against Kurds in Germany.

In May, it had come to light that the leaders of Osmanen Germania wanted in Germany had fled to Turkey. Around the same time, photographs had surfaced showing the Osmanen Germania gang’s relationship with some top ranking Turkish state officials. In these photographs, a group including gang leader Selçuk Can Şahin are seen visiting Erdoğan’s Chief Advisor İlnur Çevik in his office while Çevik is wearing a t-shirt with the group’s logo on it.

According to DW, Külünk did not respond to the German media requests for comment, but in a series of tweets he lambasted “fictional reports” and threats against Turks living in Europe. He also condemned threats and repression against “civil society” organizations in Germany.

“Everybody knows Germany’s open and hidden support for PKK and the FETÖ. The German deep state’s media operations are futilely trying to target me and Turkish civil society organizations to cover up their support for terrorist groups,” Külünk wrote in one of 16 tweets on the allegations. “FETÖ” is a derogatory term coined by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to refer to the Gülen movement.

UETD has also condemned the Frontal 21 and Stuttgarter Nachrichten investigation as not reflecting the truth and amounting to “slander.” “We view this program as part of a campaign to denounce UETD and which seeks to legally marginalize and silence the critical voice of the Turkish community,” UETD claimed in a statement.

According to DW, Osmanen Germania has repeatedly denied media accusations against the group on its Facebook page. It says that detained people such as Bağcı are not members, that the group no longer has a president or vice president, and that it has undergone restructuring.

ARMENIAN CAUCUS CO-CHAIR DAVE TROTT’S AMENDMENT ON GUN SALE TO TURKEY ADOPTED

July 13, 2017 By administrator

Dave Trott’s (R-MI)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of H.R. 2810, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Representative Dave Trott’s (R-MI) amendment on a proposed gun sale to Turkey was adopted as part of the overall bill, reported the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly). The amendment stated: “It is the sense of Congress that the proposed sale of semiautomatic handguns for export to Turkey should remain under scrutiny until a satisfactory and appropriate resolution is reached,” in light of the Turkish security guards attack against peaceful protesters in our nation’s capital.

“Over the past few months, we’ve seen our NATO allies take extraordinary steps against Turkey, and it’s time for the State Department to do the same. We need to block this arms sale and once and for all point a finger in Erdogan’s chest and tell him that a strategic location does not place Turkey above the law,” Rep. Trott said. “Just two months ago, Erdogan’s henchmen, with him complacently observing just feet away, launched a brutal attack on peaceful protestors exercising their first amendment rights. A notorious oppressor of basic human rights and freedom, Erdogan imported his nefarious attitudes to our nation’s capital. While Erdogan’s thugs may run unchecked in Ankara, this is the United States of America and this is totally unacceptable,” he added.

Rep. Trott’s amendment to H.R. 2810 highlighted concerns that “the security force that participated in this violence may be the recipient of arms exported from the United States under a proposed deal.” The amendment builds on the unanimous passage last month of H. Res. 354, which condemned the violence that took place outside the Turkish Ambassador’s residence on May 16 and called on the perpetrators to be brought to justice under U.S. law.

In its letter to the House Rules Committee this week, the Assembly strongly supported the Congressman’s amendment and urged its adoption. Approval by the Rules Committee paved the way for its adoption by the full House of Representatives.

“The Armenian Assembly commends Rep. Trott for his ongoing efforts to hold Turkey accountable for its actions. Adoption of this amendment sends a strong message that the United States will not let its democratic values be trampled upon by a foreign government,” said Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny.

In addition to his amendment, Rep. Trott spearheaded a bi-partisan letter last month with 36 Members of Congress to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson opposing an anticipated gun sale to Turkey. “We can no longer enable Turkey to compromise our democratic values, and this proposed arms sale is nothing short of an endorsement of the actions of President Erdogan’s security force. As such, we strongly urge you to reject this proposed sale and any potential weapons transfer to President Erdogan’s security detail,” the letter stated.

Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.

U.S. House Unanimously condemned Turkey for Erdogan-Ordered Attack on Peaceful Protesters Video

June 7, 2017 By administrator

WASHINGTON, DC – With a vote of 397 to 0, the U.S. House of Representatives today unanimously condemned Turkey, sharply criticizing the brutal May 16th Erdogan-ordered attack against peaceful protesters in Washington DC, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). H.Res.354 represents a powerful stand against Ankara’s attempts to export its violence and intolerance to America’s shores.

“With today’s vote, Congress started rolling back Ankara’s occupation of Washington, DC,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “After far too many years of appeasing Ankara – turning a blind eye to its genocidal horrors, abuses at home, and aggression abroad – the United States, starting with the House of Representatives – today turned an important corner, challenging Turkey’s violence and confronting its increasingly anti-American conduct.”

H.Res.354 was spearheaded by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA), Ranking Democrat Eliot Engel (D-NY), House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and received the public backing of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) prior to the vote.

Chairman Royce led House Floor discussion of the measure, noting, “the violent attacks by officers assigned to Turkish President Erdogan’s security detail against peaceful protesters back on May 16 were designed to do one thing: they were designed to silence those protesters’ criticism of the Turkish government. And that is why it is so important that we speak out. We must speak loudly and clearly that we will protect our citizens and their fundamental rights to free speech and to assembly.”

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) was adamant in his condemnation of the attacks. “It should be clear to Turkey and to all nations that we will oppose any attempt to suppress dissent or the freedom of speech. That is why that is in the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Because our founding fathers and, frankly, those who follow western values and, yes, some eastern values believe that free speech is the absolute essential for democracy to succeed and flourish.”

Maryland Congressman John Sarbanes (D-MD) called for a complete re-evaluation of the US-Turkey relationship, noting that the incident “unmasked President Erdogan for the bully he is . . . It reflects a deeply embedded reflex that in the modern era has brought the world, among other things, the unlawful invasion and occupation of Cyprus, the Armenian Genocide and the violent repression of the Kurdish people.”

DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) expressed particular concern that the beatings are part of a pattern or repression by President Erdogan’s bodyguards. “A similar incident occurred about a half dozen years ago at the united nations. Same head of state. Same thugs attacking peaceful protesters. Last year, just this past year, there was an attack on journalists outside of the Brookings institute. So if we don’t tell them it’s time to stop when we had the third attack, they will persist, that is for sure.”

New York Congressman Adriano Espaillat (D) noted, “Erdogan simply decided to treat Americans the way he treats his own people. His guards even had the nerve to attack law enforcement officials who were protecting him and his delegation. This behavior cannot stand. And the resolution before us sends a clear, decisive message that congress won’t tolerate it.”

Following unanimous passage of the measure, Texas Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) told Asbarez Newspaper editor Ara Khachaturian, “Turkey’s dictator Erdogan tried to bring his tyranny to our doorstep last month. Erdogan stood by and watched as his thugs brutally attacked peaceful American protestors outside the Turkish Ambassador’s residence. They were demonstrating against the Turkish government’s ongoing crackdown on human rights and free speech. I am proud to cosponsor H. Res. 354 condemning this vicious attack and sending a message that this show of force will not be tolerated in the United States of America. No foreign dictator will violate the rights of Americans on American soil with impunity. These protesters should return to the Turkish Ambassador’s residence and exercise their rights protected under our Constitution. Democracy will always prevail over tyranny. And that’s just the way it is.” During House Foreign Affairs Committee consideration of the measure, Rep. Poe was among the most strident in condemning the attacks, urging colleagues to join him in protests in front of the Turkish Embassy.

“Why was Erdogan so emboldened? Because we have had an American government that is coward for generations rather than recognize the Armenian Genocide,” said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) in an email to Asbarez. “If we are so weak that we engage — that we are a party to genocide denial, who should respect our laws or our sovereignty or think that they’ll pay any price for anything they do here in our country? Finally, the actions of those thugs have been compounded by the lies of the Turkish ambassador,” added Sherman.

“It’s outrageous that Erdogan and his thugs felt they could beat up peaceful protesters on the streets of Washington. We don’t need him exporting his violence and repressive tactics to the United States,” said Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), who helped lead last week’s House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into the attacks on peaceful protesters. “I’m pleased that the House took this initial step today. Moving forward, we must make clear to Erdogan that freedom of speech is the law of the land in this country.”

ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian was videotaping live at the scene of the May 16th attack, which took place in front of the Turkish Ambassador’s residence where President Erdogan was scheduled to have a closed-door meeting with representatives of The Atlantic Council, a leading think tank in Washington, DC which receives funding from Turkey. Hamparian’s video showed pro-Erdogan forces crossing a police line and beating peaceful protesters – elderly men and several women – who were on the ground bleeding during most of the attack. Hamparian testified before a May 25th Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing on this matter. Joining him at the hearing were Ms. Lusik Usoyan, Founder and President of the Ezidi Relief Fund; Mr. Murat Yusa, a local businessman and protest organizer; and Ms. Ruth Wedgwood, Edward B. Burling Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Usoyan and Yusa were victims of the brutal assault on May 16th by President Erdogan’s bodyguards.

ANCA live footage of the attack served as source video for CNN, AP, The Washington Post, The Daily Caller and other major media, transforming the violent incident into a global spotlight on Erdogan’s attempt to export his intolerance and aggression to American shores.

The Sunday, June 4th edition of The New York Times featured a two-page center-spread investigative report on the May 16th attack, with online version of the coverage translated to Turkish and shared widely on social media. The ANCA is cited by The New York Times as a source for this report.

The New York Times coverage is available here:

Erdogan’s Guards Beating Protesters Reinforces ‘Terrible Turk’ Image

May 25, 2017 By administrator

BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

Armenians and non-Armenians alike were saddened and outraged seeing videos of the attack on 11 protesters who were injured after being hit, kicked and choked by President Erdogan’s security guards in front of the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., on May 16. Regrettably, several thousand Turks shamelessly sent tweets expressing their joy that Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds, Greeks and Yezidis were bloodied by Turkish thugs!

This vicious brawl has done more damage to the image of Turkey in the United States and around the world than any other brutality recently committed by Turkish soldiers, police or security guards inside Turkey. Turkish denialists constantly complain that Armenian ‘propaganda’ on the Armenian Genocide has stained the reputation of Turks worldwide, ignoring the fact that Turks have tarnished their own image by committing a mass heinous mass crime.

In fact, the May 16 nasty attack by Turkish goons on peaceful protesters has done more to reinforce the ‘Terrible Turk’ image than anything Armenians or others could have done. The Turkish government spends millions of dollars each year to pay public relations firms to present Turkey in the best possible light. However, the latest incident, which was condemned by many Members of Congress and covered widely by the mass media, has blackened the reputation of Turkey and its autocratic President Erdogan to such an extent that even $100 million spent on public relations cannot undo the damage inflicted on their image.

Here are some of the critical comments made by Members of Congress:

Sen. John McCain (Rep.-AZ), Chairman of Senate Armed Services Committee, told ABC Nightly News and MSNBC: “We should throw [Turkey’s] Ambassador the hell out of the United States of America!”

In addition, Sen. McCain and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Dem.-CA), Ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a joint letter to Erdogan asking for an apology.

Four Republican Senators: Marco Rubio (FL), Tom Cotton (AR), Mike Lee (UT), and Ted Cruz (TX) issued a joint statement demanding an immediate apology from the Turkish government.

Condemnatory statements were also issued by: Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (Dem.-NY), Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (Dem.-RI), Sen. Jack Reed (Dem.-RI), Sen. Ben Cardin (Dem.-MD), Sen. Patrick Leahy (Dem.-VT), and Sen. Ben Sasse (Rep.-NEB).

House Foreign Relations Committee chairman Ed Royce sent a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Attorney General Jeff Sessions stating: “Agents of foreign governments should never be immune from prosecution for felonious behavior.”

Several other House members also issued statements condemning the Turkish attack: Don Breyer (Dem.-VA), Devin Nunes (Rep.-CA), Adam Schiff (Dem.-CA), Steny Hoyer (Dem.-MD), Frank Pallone (Dem.-NJ), Dave Trott (Rep.-MI), David Valadao (Rep.-CA), Brad Sherman (Dem.-CA), James McGovern (Dem.-MA), Jim Costa (Dem.-CA), Zoe Lofgren (Dem.-CA), Ron DeSantis (Rep.-FL), Tulsi Gabbard (Dem.-HI), Ted Deutch (Dem.-FL), and District of Columbia Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, tweeted: “Clearly Erdogan’s guards feel complete impunity, drawing on tools of repression they use at home and knowing he has their back, no matter what.”

In addition, both the Mayor and Police Chief of Washington, D.C., condemned the brutal attack in the nation’s Capital, shortly after Erdogan met with President Trump in the White House.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told FOX news that the Turkish attack is “simply unacceptable” and is under investigation. Turkey’s Ambassador to Washington, Serdar Kilic, was summoned to the State Department by Under Secretary of State Thomas Shannon. The State Department issued a statement condemning the Turkish government “in the strongest possible terms.” The Wall Street Journal reported that the State Department “is exploring ways to block members of Erdogan’s security detail from re-entering the United States.” This is the least the U.S. government should do! Amazingly, Amb. Kilic was quoted as telling a police officer who was trying to break up the fight, “you cannot touch us,” referring to the possible diplomatic immunity granted to some of the Turkish guards. Incredibly, the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S. Ambassador in Ankara to complain about the behavior of Washington, D.C., police.

The most serious aspect of this attack was the fact that Erdogan was video-taped by Voice of America (Turkish news service) directing his security detail to attack the protesters, according to the Washington Post. Regrettably, this is not the first time Erdogan’s bodyguards have gotten involved in beating or threatening individuals during his overseas trips.

In 2009, then-Prime Minister Erdogan’s security members were involved in a brawl with President Obama’s Secret Service agents.

In 2011, Erdogan’s bodyguards broke the ribs of a United Nations security guard, during an attack at the U.N. headquarters in New York City.

In 2014, Turkish security in New York threatened and pushed around journalists working for a newspaper unfriendly to Erdogan.

In 2015, during a visit to Brussels, Erdogan’s security guard attacked a Belgian government bodyguard.

In February 2016, Erdogan’s bodyguards assaulted three women who were protesting his speech at the National Institute of Higher Studies in Quito, Uruguay. The Turkish security members also broke the nose of an Ecuadorian Parliament member who was trying to intervene. Erdogan arrogantly justified the attack: “Appropriate responses will always be taken to handle these disrespectful people.” Rosana Alvarado, deputy speaker of Ecuador’s Parliament, responded: “We don’t want to see Erdogan in our country again!”

In March 2016, Erdogan’s security attacked journalists and protesters outside the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., where the Turkish leader was invited to give a speech.

After listing some of the aforementioned attacks, National Review Online columnist Tom Rogan concluded: “As Erdogan centralizes power and attacks his opponents, the TPPD [Turkish Presidential Protection Department] has morphed from law enforcement into suited thuggery.”

It will take a long time for Turkey to recover the flood of negative publicity in hundreds of U.S. newspapers, TV stations, and websites, including a devastating editorial in the Washington Post. Anders Corr writing in Forbes magazine suggested that “next time Turkey comes to town, mobilize the riot police to corral Erdogan’s thuggish security if they get out of hand.” In an editorial, The New York Times aptly described the May 16 attack: “The enduring image of Mr. Erdogan’s visit will not be the pomp at the White House but that of his security guards and other supporters beating up protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence.”

Erdogan’s security exhibited their typical criminal behavior in front of the whole world. They behaved in the United States the way they behave routinely in Turkey!

Two Turkish journalists, writing in the independent Al-Monitor website, correctly characterized the recent ugly incidents with Erdogan’s bodyguards: “The Washington visit ended with scenes making a mockery of Turkey’s image,” wrote Fehim Tastekin. Pinar Tremblay added: “Erdogan’s security personnel are notorious for attacking protesters all around the globe, thus presenting a brutal face of Turkey that no anti-Turkey lobby could accomplish in one day.”