The Turkish Foreign Ministry has rejected a resolution passed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee that condemns the violence that erupted outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington during which Turkish security personnel brutally beat US protestors.
“The Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives today [May 25th] hastily voted and passed a one-sided resolution which distorts the facts. We reject the said resolution,” said a statement by Ambassador Hüseyin Müftüoğlu, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in response to a question regarding the resolution.
The resolution reads: “H. Res. 354, Condemning the violence against peaceful protesters outside the Turkish Ambassador’s residence on May 16, 2017, and calling for the perpetrators to be brought to justice and measures to be taken to prevent similar incidents in the future.”
“The incident that took place in front of the Turkish Ambassador’s Residence during the visit of President Erdoğan to Washington D.C., was caused as a result of the refusal of US authorities to take necessary security measures, despite repeated official warnings,” added the spokesperson.
Ambassador Müftüoğlu also underlined that Washington had not responded to the question of why US authorities did not take tight security measures in front of the ambassador’s residence as they did during other stages of the visit.
“Likewise, no explanation has so far been provided for the incident that took place afterwards in front of the Chancery, caused by extreme and aggressive actions of the US security authorities and officially protested by our Ministry.”
Ankara expressed that further advancement of the resolution in the legislative process with a view to changing the basis would not help in the settlement of the matter.
“We would like to keep our hope that the developments regarding this matter, which we will be following closely, will not overshadow the visit which we consider was productive,” said spokesperson Müftüoğlu.
Demonstrators protesting the policies of President Erdoğan, who was visiting Washington for a White House meeting with Donald Trump last Thursday, were countered by agitated supporters of the Turkish head of state and subsequently attacked by the Turkish president’s bodyguards, footage of the incident shows.
Another video clip shows Erdoğan apparently giving the order for his security detail to attack the protesters and watching it unfold outside the ambassador’s residence on Sheridan Circle.