Establishment organization Brookings represents America’s dark side – deploring peace, promoting war and color revolutions, featuring speakers disdainful of rule of law principles and democratic values like Erdogan.
He’s in Washington for the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS). Obama declined to meet with him officially during his stay. Brookings invited him to speak.
His security guards made Washington look like Ankara, clashing with peaceful demonstrators outside the venue, protesting his crackdown on press freedom, other human rights abuses, war on Turkish Kurds and support for ISIS in Syria.
They assaulted several journalists covering his talk, outside and inside the venue, including regime critic Adem Yavuz Arslan.
Turkish journalist Ali Aslan tweeted Arslan was “kicked out of #Brookings building by Erdogan’s men. They are pressuring Brookings to take me out, too.”
Other Turkish journalists opposing regime policies were assaulted, at least one injured, a woman thrown to the ground, some prevented from entering the venue.
Amerin Zaman said Erdogan security guards called her a “PKK whore.” Emre Uslu was beaten outside the venue even though invited to attend the event.
Erdogan’s thugs clashed with Washington police after refusing their demands to remove protesters, a reporter calling the altercation “pretty damn close to…fistfights.”
Throughout his tenure as prime minister and president, Erdogan waged war on press freedom, targeting regime critics, shutting down opposition print and electronic media, imprisoning journalists for doing their job, tolerating no opposition or dissent.
Washington-based National Press Club president Thomas Burr issued a statement, saying “Turkey’s leader and his security team are guests in the United States.”
“They have no right to lay their hands on reporters or protesters or anyone else for that matter, when the people they were apparently roughing up seemed to be merely doing their jobs or exercising the rights they have in this country.”
Erdogan’s address tried defending the indefensible, calling opposition journalists and other regime critics “terrorists,” vowing prosecutions of anyone “insult(ing)” him, promising no letup in war Turkish Kurds.
He ignored abusive actions by his security guards. Brookings failed to explain why it invited an international outlaw to speak at its headquarters.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
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