On Tuesday, nine people were sent to the hospital in a violent clash outside of the Turkish ambassador’s residence between protesters and security forces accompanying President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. D.C. Police have said they’ll “pursue everything that’s within our legal power to hold the folks that were responsible accountable for their actions.” Still, Erdogan and his entourage have already left the country, and diplomatic immunity is likely to shield some of those involved. Here’s the latest in what would be an even more significant international incident if we lived in Normal Times.

Video footage has emerged showing that Erdogan was aware of what his security team was up to:

The Voice of America’s Turkish news service released footage that shows the Turkish president observing the melee from a car. The Washington Post has a full frame by frame analysis of the video, in which Erdogan emerges from a black sedan near at least one of the men seen in other footage participating in the brawl.

Other disturbing footage and images have emerged:

But the White House still hasn’t said anything about the incident:

Erdogan had visited the White House earlier in the day, where President Donald Trump gave him a warm welcome. “We’ve had a great relationship and we will make it even better,” Trump said, despite Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian leadership and Turkey’s stalwart opposition to the United States’ decision to arm Syrian Kurds. “We look forward to having very strong and solid discussions.” The White House hasn’t said a peep, though, about the violent incident on U.S. soil.

Eleanor Holmes Norton sent a letter to Rex Tillerson:

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton sent a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urging him to ” bar any Turkish official who committed, encouraged, facilitated or otherwise participated in the assaults from reentering the United States if they have already left the country and to expel any that remain in the country. I also write to request information on whether the Turkish officials connected to the assaults are entitled to diplomatic immunity, and, if any is, what level of immunity.”

The State Department hasn’t said much, though:

“Violence is never an appropriate response to free speech, and we support the rights of people everywhere to free expression and peaceful protest. We are communicating our concern to the Turkish government in the strongest possible terms,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said on Tuesday. Since then, they haven’t announced anything to the public. According to the New York Times, the Turkish ambassador to the U.S. was summoned to meet with the under secretary of state for political affairs. A congressional aide briefed on the State Department’s investigation told the paper that two men who had been detained on scene by the Secret Service (but let go due to their diplomatic status) were still under investigation and aren’t allowed back in the country.

D.C.’s local officials continue to denounce the attack:

The strongest immediate response on Tuesday came from the D.C. government and police force, with local officials roundly condemning the incident as an attack on free speech. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who said she’d gotten caught in the traffic the melee caused, continued to have strong words about the incident today. “The peaceful demonstrators were attacked … they were illegally attacked,” she said on the Kojo Show this afternoon.

Filed Under: erdogan, turkey, turkish embassy,