D.C. think tank gets a taste of Turkish conflict right outside its doors
By NAHAL TOOSI
The war on the streets of Turkey has spilled onto Washington’s polite think tank row.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s appearance Thursday at the Brookings Institution drew protesters, sparked clashes between his security guards and journalists, and was capped by a long, highly defensive speech in which the Turkish leader dismissed his Western critics.
The chaotic scenes, captured by photos and media accounts, were an unusual sight on the stretch of Washington’s Massachusetts Avenue where Brookings and a number of other think tanks and academic institutions are headquartered.
The protesters, many of whom were unhappy with Turkey’s treatment of its Kurdish minority, held up signs calling Erdogan a war criminal. According to reporters at the scene, the Turkish leaders security guards began assailing reporters and protesters well ahead of Erdogan’s appearance.
Amberin Zaman, a Turkish journalist with the Woodrow Wilson Center, tweeted that a member of Erogan’s security details called her a “PKK whore” for standing in the driveway — a reference to a militant Kurdish group currently battling the Turkish state. One video appeared to show a Turkish journalist being physically pushed away from the area.
Media outlets reported that local police officers rushed in to try to calm the situation, but that some of them warned the Turkish leader’s security guards that they needed to back off and let the protesters have their say. “You’re part of the problem, you guys need to control yourselves and let these people protest,” Foreign Policy reported one police officer as saying.
Read more here
(AP PHOTOS)