Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s security detail and the U.S. citizens they brutally assaulted in Washington in 2017 are preparing for renewed violence when he visits next month.
Trump is expecting to meet with Erdoğan at the White House, and U.S. citizens assaulted during his last visit say they will again wave Kurdish flags and loudly chant against the “dictator.”
“I am scared myself for my life, but I am not going to give up. I am going to definitely protest him again the way we did two years ago in Sheridan Circle,” said Sayid Reza Yasa, 62, a Turkey-born Kurdish American who was kicked in the head by three men outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in May 2017.
“He beat the hell out of me,” said Yasa. “He is a dictator. He is killing innocent people.”
After meeting Trump at the White House in 2017, Erdoğan went to the nearby Turkish ambassador’s residence. He appeared to relay a command and watched as two dozen Turkish guards broke through a police line and attacked a small group of Kurdish, Armenian, and anti-authoritarian protesters.
Immediately before the attack, protesters chanted that Erdoğan was a baby-killer amid a crackdown on Turkish Kurds.
Lusik “Lucy” Usoyan, a Yezidi Kurd from Armenia who lost consciousness after being kicked by six men, four identified in an indictment, also plans to protest if Erdoğan accepts Trump’s invitation to meet Nov. 13.
“I am hopeful they will behave in a human manner given the outrage they caused last time. I hope they learned that in the U.S. we have freedom of speech,” said Usoyan, who leads the Washington-based Ezidi Relief Fund. “We will be all together again in front of the White House loud and clear expressing our feelings about Erdoğan, who is a dictator and murderer.”
Trump insulted Erdoğan this month after he invaded northern Syria to attack the Kurdish YPG militia after Trump removed troops. But Thursday, after Vice President Mike Pence brokered a ceasefire, Trump told reporters his invitation for a visit was still on.
“I would say that, yeah, he would come. He did a terrific thing. He’s a leader,” Trump said.
Four Erdoğan security guards still face charges over the last visit. The cases against 11 others were quietly dropped under circumstances that remain unclear.
Washington police referred questions about the possible visit to the State Department, which declined to comment.
“Back then, we were showing the flag of Kurdish forces in northern Syria,” recalled a third Kurdish American who attended the 2017 protest and plans to return. “He heard us chanting, and that’s why he ordered the attack.”
“That time, we had a very small number. But this time, I hope more Americans are going to be there as well,” she said. “He is still killing the babies in Syria.”
The Turkish Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.
The 2017 attack outraged lawmakers. The House unanimously called for prosecution of Erdoğan’s guards, and Congress voted to block an arms sale to Erdoğan’s security detail. Trump never publicly condemned the attack. Turkish officials said Trump apologized to Erdoğan after 15 of his guards were criminally charged, but the White House denied it.
Lacy MacAuley, a Washington member of the radical left-wing antifa movement who was assaulted by Erdoğan guards, said “fear of retaliation doesn’t keep us from standing up for what is right and good.”
“I believe President Trump would like to be the kind of brutal dictator that President Erdoğan is. I think President Trump has the same fascist mind that Erdoğan has and admires Erdoğan for his brutality and power,” MacAuley said.
MacAuley, who is involved in planning for the possible Erdoğan visit, said it would be “absolutely symbolic” to return to Sheridan Circle after protesting outside the White House.
The protest plans are fluid and hinge on whether Erdoğan agrees to visit. Groups including the American Rojava Center for Democracy and the Armenian National Committee of America are involved in preparations.
American Rojava Center for Democracy Vice President Flint Arthur was punched and kicked by Erdoğan guards in 2017. He said he anticipates heavy turnout due to blowback against Trump’s Syria withdrawal.
Arthur visited Syria this year and said he was inspired to support the YPG after its members saved Yezidis besieged on an Iraqi mountain by Islamic State terrorists.
“There will definitely be YPG flags at our protest,” Arthur said. “The American people have been quite vocal about the U.S. abandoning our allies in Syria.”
