Turkish security services brought their strong-arm tactics to Washington on Thursday, roughing up protesters, journalists and even D.C. police before a speech by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The event descended into chaos and violence outside the Brookings Institute near D.C.'s Dupont Circle after the president's security personnel confronted a small group of people gathered to protest Erdogan's visit.
Erdogan was in town to meet with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday and deliver a speech at Brookings before attending this week's Nuclear Security Summit in the capitol.
Reporters and onlookers captured the whole pandemonium in photos and videos, which they shared on Twitter in real-time.
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At least one journalist was removed by Turkish security and another was kicked, according to Foreign Policy. A third was thrown to the sidewalk in front of the institution's front doors.
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A fourth, Turkish journalist, Amberin Zaman, was called a "whore," she said.
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Some demonstrators held a sign reading "Erdogan: War Criminal On The Loose," while another shouted through a megaphone that Erdogan was a "baby-killer."
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As the protesters tried to cross the street, D.C. police officers blocked traffic and physically separated them from Turkish personnel, said Foreign Policy.
Turkish security then clashed with the D.C. cops, who refused to remove protesters from the premises.
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Inside the event, Turkish security personnel reportedly even tried to forcibly remove an American journalist, but were stopped by Brookings' own security, which sat the man back down.
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They did, apparently, succeed in getting a Turkish journalist removed from the building, and threatened another, according to Ali Aslan, Washington Correspondent at Turkey's Zaman newspaper.
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