Politics & Government

VIDEO: Turkish President Erdogan's Bodyguards Punch NYC Protesters, Witnesses Say

Not again.

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — For the second time this year, bodyguards for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appear to have gotten physical with U.S. protesters — this time, inside the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square, during a "special address" Erdogan was giving to local Turkish and Muslim leaders on Thursday afternoon.


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Turkey's president has a reputation in his own country for punishing dissenters with prison and intimidation — and force — while slowly expanding his own governmental powers, sultan-style. He was in NYC this week for the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly.

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At around the 5-to-15-second mark and 30-second mark in the TV news footage below, men in dark suits can be seen punching two different protesters as they're escorted out of the hotel.


Marriott Hotels spokeswoman Kathleen Duffy said the "men in dark suits who were security officers in the ballroom" Thursday afternoon were Erdogan's guys. They were "hired by the client, not the hotel," she wrote in an email.

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Duffy said she could not personally confirm, however, that the guards punched anyone.

Another video recorded in the ballroom by Turkish journalist and political analyst Ilhan Tanir shows what he reported to be a bodyguard-on-protester attack, beginning around the 25-minute mark:

Here are some more angles of the violence.

A Turkish-American attendee named Halil Demir also told the New York Times he saw security guards push a middle-aged man onto the ground at one point.

It's still not entirely clear, though, if the men in suits who were caught on tape punching protesters Thursday were Erdogan's paid employees or just his supporters.

A spokeswoman for the NYPD said police were not looking into whatever occurred inside the Marriott on Thursday afternoon. That investigation would be up to hotel management, she said. However, NYPD officers did respond to a separate skirmish outside the hotel — located on Broadway, near 7th Avenue — right after Erdogan's speech, the spokeswoman said.

"As President Erdogan was leaving the hotel" around 3 p.m., the police spokeswoman said, "an unknown number of anti-government protesters did clash with pro-government demonstrators in front of the location. As a result of this incident, approximately five demonstrators were briefly detained and released by security assigned to protect President Erdogan." Everyone then "departed the location," she said, and the NYPD made no arrests.

In a statement sent to Patch on Thursday evening, Duffy, a rep for Marriott Hotels, said:

"During President Erdogan’s speech at the hotel, there were a few protesters in the audience who created a verbal disruption. The authorities were present and escorted the individuals off property. To our knowledge there were no injuries to the individuals escorted off property. In reference to your question about online videos showing physical altercations, we are unable to identify the individuals in the videos we have seen."

Most of the anti-Erdogan activists who crashed his speech in NYC appeared to be representing the Kurdish independence movement. Turkish media outlets reported that one protester shouted "You're a terrorist!" at Erdogan. And another attendee claimed on Twitter that the man who yelled these words — along with "Get out of my country!" — was a U.S. citizen who once fought in the Kurdish army:

Erdogan would argue — and does, quite often — that Kurdish activists are the ones who are terrorists. (Here's a good explainer on the long and troubled relationship between Turkey and the Kurds.)

In the footage below, Erdogan can reportedly be heard asking his guards "what kind" of Americans are causing the commotion at the Marriott.

Directly after his speech, Erdogan met with Trump for a pre-scheduled talk. As far as we could tell from press footage of the meeting, neither of them publicly addressed what had happened just an hour or two earlier.

The White House press office did not return Patch's request for comment Thursday.

Trump did say at his meeting with Erdogan, though, that the U.S. and Turkey are "right now as close as we have ever been." And Erdogan, for his part, has taken to calling the American president "my dear friend Donald."

Another video that went viral back in May showed more than a dozen members of Erdogan's security detail pummeling a group of Syrian-Kurdish protesters and their supporters outside the Turkish ambassador's house in Washington, DC. Although local cops sort of just stood by and watched at the time (as did Erdogan himself), they eventually charged the guards for assaulting peaceful protesters. Only two guards could be arrested, however, as the rest reportedly live in Turkey.

In a PBS interview recorded this week — just one day before the second alleged beatdown — Erdogan said he was "very sorry" for the violence in May.


Erdogan also claimed U.S. President Donald Trump called him around a week prior to say he, too, was sorry — and that "he was going to follow up about this issue when [Erdogan and his people] come to the United States within the framework of an official visit."

The White House has since denied Erdogan's account of this particular phone convo with Trump.

A political rival of Erdogan's pointed out online Thursday that this is actually the fourth time the Turkish president's entourage has been accused of resorting to violence on American soil. Around six years back, Erdogan's guards brawled with uniformed United Nations security officers at another General Assembly session in NYC — then allegedly pounced on protesters again in the Capitol, circa spring 2016.


This story has been edited for clarity and updated to include additional details. Lead photo by Michael Reynolds/Getty Images


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