Republican Senator John McCain told MSNBC that the Turkish Ambassador to the US should be kicked out of the country following the attack by the personal bodyguards of visiting Turkish President Recep Erdogan in Washington against Kurdish protesters in front of the Embassy. Mr. McCain tweeted: “This is the United States of America. We do not do this here. There is no excuse for this kind of thuggish behavior”. During his interview on MSNBC the Senator said that the incident warranted a response by the US diplomacy, saying “We should the Ambassador to the United States the hell out of here”. He added that legal action could be taken to identify the attackers and punish them. According to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, Turkish Ambassador to the US Serdar Kilic was summoned by the US State Department to explain the attacks. Two people were arrested and 11 were injured in protests outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence amid President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit.
Video footage of the clash on Tuesday showed men in suits charging past police to kick and punch protesters.
Police called the violence a “brutal attack on peaceful protesters”.
But the Turkish Embassy said the demonstrators were aggressively provoking Turkish-Americans who had gathered to greet the president, and they in turn responded in self-defence.