Turkey rejects U.S. scolding for violence against protesters

The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Thursday rejected a congressional resolution that condemned the violence by Turkish bodyguards against protesters during President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington, D.C., last week. The House Committee on Foreign Affairs, led by Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., condemned the violence against pro-Kurdish protesters and demanded that Turkey apologize. Turkey’s Ambassador Huseyin Muftuoglu in a statement called the resolution “distorted” and one-sided, and said the incident happened because U.S. officials failed to take necessary security measures. “There is no answer to the question why the U.S. authorities did not take tight security measures in front of the ambassador’s residence as they did in other stages of the visit,” Muftuoglu said. Video footage from the incident showed Turkish security officials punching and kicking the protestors in front of the ambassador’s residence.

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