WASHINGTON, DC – On May 25th, the House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously adopted H.Res.354 condemning the May 16th attacks on peaceful protesters by Turkish President Erdogan’s bodyguards, “calling for the perpetrators to be brought to justice and measures to be taken to prevent similar incidents in the future.” Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Ranking Democrat Eliot Engel (D-NY) were joined by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) in spearheading the Congressional effort, likely to be voted on in the full House in early June.
“The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s unanimous adoption of H.Res.354 represents a powerful bipartisan condemnation of Turkish President Erdogan’s attempts to export this brand of brutality to the United States,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “He and the regimes before him have gotten away with a century of genocide and repression – from the Armenians, Greeks and Assyrian in 1915 to the Kurds and other minorities today – through international intimidation, threats and coverups, and now violence on the streets of our nation’s capital. Congress and the Trump Administration need to send a strong message that this stops now.”
The full text of the resolution is provided below.
Citing the details of the May 16th attacks by President Erdogan’s bodyguards on peaceful protesters, and noting that this is the third time similar incidents have occurred in the U.S., Chairman Royce noted “The rights of peaceful protest and free expression are fundamental values in any democracy. By passing this resolution we reaffirm our commitment to protect these rights against all who seek to suppress them.”
“I was shocked. The last thing we expect to see in the United States is a strong man’s thugs silencing peaceful protesters,” said Ranking Democrat Engel, who noted that he had been invited to a meeting at the Turkish Embassy during the time of the beating but had not gone. “If Turkish government officials are going to come to our country and try to stifle American democracy and freedom of speech, there must be consequences.”
Noting that “Turkey has been under a downward spiral under an aspiring dictator, Erdogan,” Texas Congressman Ted Poe (R) condemned the attacks. “We will have no foreign tyrant violating our sacred rights on American soil. Justice demands that he be held accountable and Turkey be held accountable,” said Rep. Poe, who then encouraged protesters to return to the Turkish Embassy and continue their protests, with several House Foreign Affairs Committee Members, including Rep. Poe, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Rep. Anne Wagner (R-MO) all offering to join in solidarity.
Complete coverage of Congressional remarks will be available shortly. Video of the hearing is available on the House Foreign Affairs Committee YouTube channel at:
At 12 noon, Rep. Rohrabacher is leading the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe hearing on the May 16th Erdogan-ordered attacks where Hamparian will be offering testimony, along with Ms. Lusik Usoyan, Founder and President of the Ezidi Relief Fund and Mr. Murat Yusa, a local businessman and protest organizer. Usoyan and Yusa were victims of the brutal assault on May 16th by President Erdogan’s bodyguards.
The hearing will also be webcast live at https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/live-feed/
ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian was videotaping live at the scene of the May 16th attack, which took place in front of the Turkish Ambassador’s residence where President Erdogan was scheduled to have a closed-door meeting with representatives of The Atlantic Council, a leading think tank in Washington, DC which receives funding from Turkey. Hamparian’s video showed pro-Erdogan forces crossing a police line and beating peaceful protesters – elderly men and several women – who were on the ground bleeding during most of the attack.
Voice of America Turkish division, in their video coverage shot from the vantage point of the Turkish Ambassador’s house, reported that the attackers belonged to President Erdogan’s security detail and were responsible for escalating the violence.
Additional VOA Turkish video has now surfaced showing President Erdogan ordering his security detail to attack the protesters, then watching calmly as the beatings were carried out. Audio analysis carried out by the Daily Caller shows Erdogan’s bodyguards yelling “gel gel gel” — “come, come, come” — and “dalın diyor dalın diyor dalın diyor,” – “he says attack, he says attack, he says attack.”
The Washington Post has done a second-by-second analysis of the VOA Turkish videos and identified the Erdogan’s order of the attack, available here: https://wapo.st/2qCRjjD
The U.S. State Department called the Turkish Ambassador in for a discussion last week regarding the incident, officially expressing their dismay, calling the actions of President Erdogan’s body guards “unacceptable.” President Trump has yet to comment on the matter.
In a highly incendiary move, on Monday, May 22nd, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry called in the U.S. Ambassador John Bass for a diplomatic discussion, accusing U.S. police and security personnel of “aggressive and unprofessional actions.”
The protest in front of the Turkish Ambassador’s residence was a continuation of a demonstration held earlier in the day in front of the White House, co-hosted by the ANCA. As President Trump met with President Erdogan. human rights and religious rights groups were joined by representatives of the Kurdish, Yezidi and Armenian communities to call attention to the Erdogan regime’s escalating repression against free press, the Kurdish and other ethnic communities, as well as Turkey’s ongoing obstruction of justice for the Armenian Genocide.