Erdogan says can't call US 'civilized' over warrant for his bodyguards

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) - Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that he could not call the United States 'a civilized country' because American authorities issued arrest warrants for 13 members of his security detail who attacked dozens of pro-Kurdish demonstrators in May.

"They call [the US] cradle of democracy. No offense but if its officials decide to detain my bodyguards in absentia without knowing or seeing them in America, then I cannot call that country civilized," Erdogan told an Istanbul audience at a conference dubbed the Civilizations Forum.

The assault by Erdogan’s security detail that brutalized protestors near the Turkish Ambassador’s residence in Washington DC after a White House meeting with President Donald Trump led to widespread condemnation in the US media and among the politicians.

At the crux of the DC showdown was the continued US military support for the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) whose fighters this week liberated the Syrian city of Raqqa from the Islamic State (IS) group after a months-long campaign.

The Turkish President once again labeled the peaceful American-Kurdish protestors denouncing Turkish attacks on the YPG as 'terrorists' and claimed the US was not protecting him from those who he alleged were threatening to beat his entourage.

"Daesh has nothing to do with Islam. We are saying that Daesh is not related to Islam," Erdogan said in his Istanbul speech, using an Arabic acronym for the IS.

"Then the [DC] prosecutor goes on issuing an arrest order. What kind of justice is that," he asked.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser back in June defended her administration’s intent to bring Erdogan’s bodyguards to justice.

By issuing arrest warrants “we send a clear and unambiguous message that no one — not even the security force of a foreign leader — is above the law,” she wrote in an opinion piece for the New York Times.

In one of the videos of the melee released by the Turkish language service Voice of America (VOA), Erdogan seemed to address a member of his security detail from inside his car before the assailants begin rushing towards the crowd, raising questions as to whether he ordered the attack.

Editing by Ava Homa