WASHINGTON, March 31 (Sputnik) – Personal security guards for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly issued violent threats to Kurdish protesters and Turkish opposition media journalists outside a Brookings Institute event where Erdogan was scheduled to speak.
“We have a peaceful demonstration, they come here and then they threaten us,” Kurdish protester Omer Pacl told Sputnik on Thursday. “He used a very bad word he said… we are going to kill you.”
On Thursday, a Sputnik correspondent at the site of the protest reported that US security had to intervene in a heated confrontation between one of Erdogan’s bodyguards and demonstrators.
According to Pacl’s account, the bodyguard crossed the street to where the protesters had assembled, and began threatening them. Washington metropolitan police and US Secret Service stopped the confrontation from escalating.
“It’s the United States, we have a right to protest… and we have a permit,” Pacl pointed out.
A number of Turkish reporters registered to cover Erdogan’s speech at the Brookings Institute on Thursday, but were removed from the event by Turkish security detail.
Emre Uslu, Turkish opposition journalist now working in the United States, claimed he was kicked by the Turkish security and had a small, bleeding gash on his shin. While giving an interview to Sputnik, three security guards called out insults at him.
Uslu translated their comments as saying, “Come here, we will shove you.”
Veteran Turkish journalist, Adem Yavuz Arslan told Sputnik that Brookings Institute staff attempted to keep the journalists inside the event, “but Erdogan’s bodyguards, they harassed me, they said many bad things, and they threaten me.”
Asked how he was threatened, Arslan claimed they said “we are going to kill, or something like this. This is the Turkish media situation now.”
Turkey’s restrictions on free speech have been criticized by the international community, including the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, Russia and the organization Reporters Without Borders.
During his Thursday speech, Erdogan asserted that his government is working on reforms and new regulations to better protect free expression in Turkey.
