Dozens of US lawmakers seek accountability from Turkey over Sheridan Circle violence
More than 70 members of the US Congress have signed a letter to the Biden administration urging it to hold Turkey accountable for the violence that erupted in Washington DC in 2017 when members of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security detail attacked protesters.
Numerous protesters, including women, children and elderly men, were punched and pushed outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence on Sheridan Circle. Six officers from the US Secret Service also required medical treatment.
The letter, seen by Kathimerini, stated that Turkey has sought to dodge legal charges brought by two separate plaintiffs — Murat Yasa, an ethnic Kurdish man, and Lusik Usoyan, a Yazidi woman — on the grounds that it enjoys diplomatic immunity and that its appeal was rejected after being reviewed by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and rejected outright by the Supreme Court in keeping with the opinions of the Biden administration.
The bipartisan letter includes Maryland Democrat Steny Hoyer, and 10 members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
