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BRUSSELS European Council president Donald Tusk yesterday stressed the importance of human rights in talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, amid tensions over Ankara's long-delayed European Union accession process.

Mr Tusk, who heads the council of 28 EU member state leaders, and European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker met the Turkish President ahead of a Nato summit in Brussels.

"I put the question of human rights in the centre of our discussions," Mr Tusk tweeted after the talks, which had begun with a brief and cordial handshake for photographers.

A spokesman for Mr Juncker said: "The EU and Turkey must and will continue to cooperate. Major issues of common interest were discussed in detail in a good and constructive atmosphere."

At another meeting on the margins of the Nato summit, Mr Erdogan promised French President Emmanuel Macron that he would "rapidly" look into the case of jailed French photojournalist Mathias Depardon, Mr Macron's office said.

According to press freedom group Reporters Without Borders, the photojournalist, who has been held in Turkey for more than two weeks, has begun a hunger strike.

The Turkish authorities have said he was detained over "propaganda for a terror group" - which is a reference to outlawed Kurdish militants.

Ahead of his trip to Brussels, Mr Erdogan said it was up to Brussels to decide whether it wants Turkey as a member of the bloc.

Speaking to reporters before leaving for Brussels, he said Turkey would not behave like a "beggar" to gain membership.

Speeding up the membership process was a key condition set by Turkey in a landmark agreement with the EU in March last year to reduce migrant flows into Europe from war-torn Syria.

But relations between the bloc and Ankara soured after a failed coup attempt in July last year, and they worsened further during the campaign for last month's referendum on strengthening Mr Erdogan's powers.

The EU has expressed concern over the sacking and jailing of tens of thousands of soldiers, police, teachers and civil servants since the failed coup.

In the run-up to the referendum, which Mr Erdogan narrowly won, he had mooted reimposing the death penalty - a move that would automatically end Turkey's EU bid.

Earlier this month, he told Brussels that it had no other option than to open new "chapters", or policy areas, in Turkey's long- stalled accession talks, which began in 2005.

Most EU states, led by Germany, officially oppose freezing the accession talks, but Austria has repeatedly called for a halt.

This prompted Turkey to veto all Nato cooperation with neutral Austria, although the crisis was partially resolved with a deal on Tuesday.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS

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EU stresses human rights in talks with Turkey's Erdogan - The Straits Times

Lucy Usoyan doesnt remember all of the details of the brutal beating she suffered at the fists and feet of a group of men in front of the Turkish embassy in Washington, D.C. last week.

But after beingshown a picture of Eyup Yildirim on Wednesday, she says that the 50-year-old supporter of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was one of the goons who savagely kicked her while she was curled up in a ball during the melee.

Absolutely, Usoyan told The Daily Caller on Wednesday after reviewing Yildirims Facebook page to see if he was one of the men who assaulted her.

Yildirim, the owner of a construction company in New Jersey, was one of the most visible figures spotted in videos recorded of last weeks attack.

Completely bald and wearing a white shirt, Yildirim joined dozens of other Turkish men in a full-frontal assault on a group of peaceful Kurdish protesters gathered outside the embassy.

The attackers were a mixture of supporters of Erdogan and bodyguards working for the authoritarian ruler. Erdogan was at the embassy following a White House visit with President Trump.

He watched the blitz from his black Mercedes Benz parked near the Turkish embassy. One video even shows Erdogan passing instructions to his immediate bodyguard just moments before the fight broke out on the street in front of the embassy.

In one video recorded by the Turkish affiliate of Voice of America, Yildirim and other men were seen kicking Usoyan as she lay curled up on the sidewalk.

The video shows that after several kicks, Yildirim turned to assaulting Seyid Reza Dersimi, a Kurdish man who was attempting to protect Usoyan.(RELATED: Video Shows Erdogan Watching As His Goons Attack Peaceful Protesters)

But Dersimi was outnumbered. Yildirim and several other men, including two wearing suits, began stomping and booting Dersimi, who ended up with his face covered in blood.

Washington, D.C. police officers meekly corralled the assailants, eventually pushing them back across the street.

Eyup Yildirim, in white, seen kicking Lucy Usoyan outside of Turkish embassy, May 16, 2016. (Courtesy Voice of America Turkish)

Usoyan, a Kurdish woman who heads the Ezidi Relief Fund, told The Daily Caller that she blacked out while being assaulted.

She says she has been to the hospital twice since the beating. She says she was given an MRI which revealed what she called a minor brain injury.

She was told she will need six weeks to fully recover.

Lucy Usoyan (right, in maroon pants) after being attacked at Turkish embassy, May 16, 2017. (Youtube screen grab via VOA Turkish)

Dersimi also confirmed Yildirims involvement during a phone interview.

Both said that Yildirim was acting aggressively and cursing before he and Erdogans other henchman attacked.

TheDC was able to reach Yildirim on Wednesday at a phone number listed for his construction company, Care Construction.

I dont know what youre talking about, he said when asked about his involvement in last weeks violence. He ended the phone call after being asked for comment.

Eyup Yildirim (in white) standing over Seyid Reza Dersimi during brawl at Turkish embassy, May 16, 2017. (Courtesy VOA Turkish)

***

The incident, which left at least 11 protesters injured, has touched off a diplomatic stalemate between the U.S. and Turkey, a NATO ally.

The State Department says it has raised its concerns at the highest possible levels of the Turkish government. The agency also summoned Turkeys ambassador, Serdar Kilic, to the State Department.

Kilic was seen in one video recorded last Tuesday telling Washington, D.C. police officers that you cannot touch us a likely reference to diplomatic protections provided to embassy staff.(RELATED: Audio Analysis: Erdogan Goons Were Told To Attack Protesters)

U.S. lawmakers have also blasted the Turkish government. Arizona Sen. John McCain said that the U.S. should kick Kilic the hell out of the country.The House Armed Services Committee is also holding a hearing over the incident on Thursday.

The Turkish foreign ministry responded to the U.S. criticism by registering a complaint with the U.S. government for violating its diplomats rights under international diplomatic law.

Given that Yildirim is not an official diplomatic agent for Turkey, and therefore not protected by international diplomatic agreements, it is unclear why he was not apprehended last Tuesday or why he has not been arrested since.

***

Yildirim was identified by TheDC through his small social media footprint.

In the days after the attack, heposted a message on the Facebook page of Ayhan Ozmekik, the president of the Turkish & American Youth Education Foundation and a leader in the U.S. arm of AKP, an Islamist party which Erdogan co-founded in 2001.

The Facebook page for Yildirim includes videos recorded in Washington, D.C. last week. He has also posted photos of a truck bearing logos of Care Construction.

Ozmekik, who is also executive director of the U.S.-based non-profit group, the Turkish Institute for Progress, posted a photo on his Facebook page with a group of men, including Yildirim and several others involved in last weeks attack.

One of the other men in that photo is Alpkenan Dereci.

A Canadian citizen, Dereci was also a highly visible participant in last weeks violence. Clad in a bright yellow shirt, Dereci received a large gash in his head during the attack on the protesters.

Halil Mutlu, cousin of Recep Erdogan, and Eyup Yildirim (right). (Youtube screen grab)

Also in the photo posted by Ozmekik is Mustafa Tuncer, a Turkish-American businessman who until last week was an executive with a group called the Turkish American Steering Committee (TASC).

As TheDC reported last week, TASC was identified in an internal State Department memo as having some sort of involvement in last weeks event.

That memo, a summary of which was provided to TheDC, stated that the State Department found that some of the men involved in the attack were protected under diplomatic immunity. Others had been hired from within the Turkish-American community. It is unclear whether TASC was involved in hiring additional security detail for Erdogan.

Tuncer announced late last week that he was leaving TASC in order to spend more time with family. But he is the executive director for another group supported by Yildirim.

A Facebook post from April 2014 shows that Yildirim attended an event hosted by MUSIAD USA, a U.S.-Turkey trade group. Tuncer is executive director of the group.

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IDENTIFIED: Meet The Erdogan Goon Who Brutally Kicked A Female Protester At Turkish Embassy [VIDEO] - The Daily Caller

New York Times

US|Did the Turkish President's Security Detail Attack Protesters in Washington? What the Video Shows New York Times The New York Times reviewed videos and photos to track the actions of 24 men, including armed members of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's security detail, who attacked protesters in Washington last week. Many of the protesters were American citizens. and more »

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US|Did the Turkish President's Security Detail Attack Protesters in Washington? What the Video Shows - New York Times

A video of last weeks vicious attack on American protesters in Washington, D.C., may show the moment an order was given to set Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans beefy security gang upon the demonstrators.

Its not clear who gave the order last Tuesday to attack protesters across the street from the Turkish ambassadors house. But in a video taken by Voice of America, a U.S. government-funded news source, someone can be heard saying what sounds like Come, come, come! and He says attackin Turkish, three university language experts told U.S. News & World Report on Saturday.

During the assaults, at least 20 men in suits raced to the protesters and repeatedly kicked and slugged them in a brutal attack. Washington police were outnumbered and overwhelmed as they tried to protect the demonstrators, at least nine of whom were eventually sent to the hospital.

Another VOA video shows Erdogan, shortly after meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump that morning, sitting in a limo across the street, in front of the Turkish ambassadors house, during the protest. The video analyzed in freeze framesby The Washington Post shows an aide talking to Erdogan through a window. The aide then speaks to another man, who in turn heads quickly toward the protest. The gang of security men descend upon the demonstrators within seconds. A third man standing near Erdogans limo is seen in the video attacking protesters.

The video appears to show the attacks were unprovoked.

The U.S. State Department has expressed its dismayto the Turkish government about the violence. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was blunter, saying the Turkish ambassador should get the hell out of the U.S.

We should throw their ambassador the hell out of the United States of America, McCain said last week on MSNBCs Morning Joe. This isnt Turkey. This isnt a third-world country.

The violence should have repercussions, including identifying these people and bringing charges against them, McCain said. They violated American laws.

McCain and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) sent a joint letter to Erdogan denouncing his staffs blatant violation of American rights.

The violent response of your security detail to peaceful protestors is wholly unacceptable and, unfortunately, reflective of your governments treatment of the press, ethnic minority groups and political opponents, the senators statement said.

The Turkish Embassy blamed the violence on the demonstrators, claiming they were aggressively provoking Turkish-American citizens who had peacefully assembled to greet Erdogan and that the security detail was protecting them.The video does not support that account.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told Fox News Sunday that the Trump administration wont take any further action until after an investigation.

You dont need further information, McCain said later on the same program. Just look at the clip.

The president has a major business interest in Turkey Trump Towers Istanbul.

I have a little conflict of interest cause I have a major, major building in Istanbul, Trump said in a 2015 interview on a Breitbart radio program. Its tremendously successful. Its called Trump Towers two towers, instead of one.

In the VOA footage, the words gel, gel, gel come, come, come can be heard, followed by daln diyor he says attack, according to the translators.

Local police and the Secret Service are also investigating. Very few arrests were made because the police had their hands full protecting protesters. Its also not clear how many of the attackers may have had diplomatic immunity.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren(D-Calif.) last week called for the arrest and prosecution of the thugs in Erdogans security detail.

If Erdogans bodyguards who participated in this attack have entered the country on diplomatic visas, those visas should be revoked right away,she said. The United States needs to send a strong message that we will not stand by as Erdogan brings thuggish tactics to our nations capital.

Erdogan was elected head of the ruling AK Party on Sunday. Observers expect this will enable him to even further solidify his power in his country.

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Video May Show The Order That Sent Erdogan's Guards To Beat ...

I messed up on Twitter last week when sending out a story I wrote about Kurds and other activists who were attacked by Recep Tayyip Erdoans security forces outside of the Turkish ambassadors Washington, D.C., residence. Instead of typing, Turkish security forces, I inadvertently wrote, Trump security forces. I deleted the tweet and regretted the errorbut the mistake was telling.

Despite the differences between Trump and Erdoan, the physical attack on Americans by foreign security personnel should serve as a stark warning to us.

The videos of the attack are striking in the precise determination of the violence. Against the Turkish security forces, the D.C. police seemed helpless to defend the Kurds and other protesters being attacked. It made the recent skirmishes between homegrown fascists and Antifa in Berkeley and elsewhere seem like schoolyard scuffles.

Heewa Arya, a Kurdish-American who was there to protest Erdoans invitation to the U.S., was among those beaten by armed Turkish security forces as they ran past police and began punching, kicking, and choking protesters. It looked like nothing so much as some crazy, apocalyptic version of a fight in The Sopranosfat dudes adept at violence going wild.

"I was attacked by many people, Arya says. I dont remember how many, but I remember at first I got a kick to my chest, and then I think another guy from behind put me down. And then I just remember there were kicks all overkicks and punches, punches in my head, in my neck, in my back body. I just tried to cover as much as I can my front face. My head was down. I dont remember anything else. I was maybe unconscious for a second from the punches."

I talked to several of those who were attacked, and they all asked, in one way or another: If Erdoan feels empowered to do this in Washington, D.C., what do you think he does in Turkey?

Kurds have long been persecuted in Turkey, but things have been getting worseespecially after last years failed coup, which prompted Erdoans harsh crackdown on anyone perceived as potential opposition.

Rather than condemning Erdoans dismantling of democracy, Trump was the first Western leader to call and congratulate the Turkish president after an April referendum that would deconstruct Turkeys constitution and pave the way for Erdoan (like Putin) to remain in power indefinitely.

Like Erdoan, Trump has encouraged violence from his supporters; he is being sued by three protesters who were allegedly assaulted after Trump yelled, Get em outta here! at a Kentucky campaign rally in March 2016. In allowing the case to go forward, a judge cited numerous instances of such rhetoric at Trumps rallies.

Dont hurt em. If I say go get em, I get in trouble with the press, Trump said as the plaintiffs were being shoved. A week later, then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski allegedly assaulted a reporter and was later charged. (That charge was later dropped.)

The Committee to Protect Journalists called Turkey the worlds biggest jailer of journalists. On the same day that Erdoan visited the White House, news broke that Trump had asked James Comey to jail journalists who publish classified material. Trump has also publicly called journalists the enemy of the people.

We are the people. Who are you? Erdoan famously asked his opponents. The appeal to the people is the central feature of both Trumps and Erdoans rhetoric. It is also key to their appeal, allowing them and their followers the ability to purge anyone not deemed a real American or an authentic Turk. The populist impulse simultaneously attacks so-called elites and the most vulnerable people, like the Kurds in Turkey.

Jan-Werner Mllers book What is Populism? argues that populism is defined not only by this anti-elitism but also by antipluralism. It is an exclusionary form of identity politics.

Once in power, populism, according to Mller, is characterized by attempts to highjack the state apparatus, corruption, and efforts to systematically repress civil society.

For all of their intense nationalism, these populist movements are going global, spurring sometimes strange alliances, such as that between Erdoan, an Islamic nationalist, and Trump, an Islamophobic nationalist.

But perhaps Trumps connection with Erdoanlike his connection to Putinis deeper than a shared hatred of elites and the institutions that would constrain their power.

On the day after Erdoan visited the White House, a slew of stories brought light to connections between Turkey and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

First we learned that Flynn informed the Trump transition team that he had secretly been working as a lobbyist for Turkeyhe had been paid $500,000and was under investigation for not disclosing his status as a foreign agent. The Trump transition team still hired him as national security adviser and gave him access to the most sensitive intelligence. Flynn, who was later fired, is also under suspicion for his ties to Russia.

A grand jury has subpoenaed Flynns financial records. According to The New York Times, the subpoena also asks for similar records about Ekim Alptekin, a Turkish businessman who is close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and is chairman of the Turkish-American Business Council. There is no indication that Mr. Alptekin is under investigation.

Then McClatchy reported that Flynn scuttled the Pentagons plan to retake the Islamic States de facto capital of Raqqa with Syrian Kurdish forces whom the Pentagon considered the U.S.s most effective military partners.

The decision was pleasing to the Turkish government. But even after all that, Trump asked then-FBI director James Comey to let this go.

These business connections combine with the ideological similarities to make Erdoans Turkey a stark warning of what Trumps vision would look like in action.

When the Turkish Embassy responded to reports of the brutal attack by its security personnel, it blamed the activists, who, the Embassy claimed, were affiliated with the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party], which the U.S. and Turkey have designated as a terrorist organization.

How long until Trump uses a similar line?

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Trump, Erdoan, and Populist Oppression: What We Can Learn from Turkey's Regime - The Independent Weekly