ANKARA: Tuesday’s indictment of 19 people, including 15 Turkish security officials, by a US grand jury is likely to further complicate relations between Ankara and Washington.
The indictment relates to a clash in Washington between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security detail and protesters on May 16.
Described by Washington’s police chief as a “brutal attack,” it happened outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence after a meeting between Erdogan and US President Donald Trump at the White House.
The US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia announced that 16 of the defendants had already been charged in June, while the indictment on Tuesday added three to the list.
All 19 defendants were indicted “on a charge of conspiracy to commit a crime of violence, with a bias crime enhancement,” the office said.
The charge is punishable by a maximum of 15 years in prison, and bias enhancement could lead to longer sentences, the statement said.
Only two of the 19 are currently in custody, and they are expected to have an initial court hearing on Sept. 7, it added.
The Turkish Embassy blamed the violence on demonstrators linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), considered by the US and Turkey as a terrorist group. The PKK has been waging a bloody insurgency in Turkey for more than three decades.
Ankara criticized the US arrest warrants for Turkish citizens allegedly involved as “wrong” and “unacceptable.”
Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, Ankara director of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, told Arab News: “The culture and laws regarding peaceful protesters are different in Turkey and the US.”
He added: “In Washington there are several protests in front of the White House and embassies, usually attended by a handful, on any given day, and security forces don’t interfere. The physical intervention of Erdogan’s security detail against peaceful protestors was against US law, and legal consequences were expected from the very first day.”
Unluhisarcikli said it was a public diplomacy disaster for Turkey. “This incident could’ve been prevented if Erdogan’s security detail refused to be provoked by the protesters,” he said.
“The US police could’ve kept the protesters at a greater distance from the Turkish Embassy for Erdogan’s security at the very least.” Unluhisarcikli said the incident will add to the long list of problems between the two NATO allies.
They are at odds over the US decision to directly arm Kurdish militants in Syria, known as People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Turkey considers a terrorist group affiliated with the PKK.
Oubai Shahbandar, a fellow at New America’s International Security Program, expressed hope that both sides can move forward from the incident in Washington and focus on more important geopolitical issues.
“US policy in continuing to support the PKK terror group’s wing in Syria is ultimately not in the interests of American national security and certainly detrimental to Turkey’s security, and in the long term harmful to the Syrian people,” Shahbandar told Arab News.
He said Defense Secretary James Mattis’ visit to Turkey last week was viewed positively, but Ankara needs a US commitment to fight the PKK and prevent it from expanding its safe havens in Iraq and Syria, which will be used to attack civilians in Turkey.
“In Washington, there doesn’t seem to be a long-term plan to secure the gains made against Daesh in Syria,” Shahbandar said.
“The tactical partnership that the US has built with the PKK affiliate in Syria as part of the anti-Daesh fight will probably prove unsustainable in the long term.”
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US indictment of Erdogan’s security detail sparks debate
US indictment of Erdogan’s security detail sparks debate
US transfers thousands of Daesh detainees from Syria to Iraq
BAGHDAD: The United States Central Command said it has completed the transfer of more than 5,700 detained Daesh group suspects from Syria to Iraq.
The detainees from some 60 countries had for years been held in Syrian prisons run by Kurdish-led forces before the recapture of surrounding territory by Damascus prompted Washington to step in.
CENTCOM said it “completed a transfer mission following a nighttime flight from northeastern Syria to Iraq on Feb 12 to help ensure Daesh detainees remain secure in detention facilities.”
“The 23-day transfer mission began on Jan 21 and resulted in US forces successfully transporting more than 5,700 adult male Daesh fighters from detention facilities in Syria to Iraqi custody,” it added in a statement.
The US had previously announced it would transfer around 7,000 detainees.
Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq in 2014, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery.
Backed by US-led forces, Iraq proclaimed the defeat of Daesh in the country in 2017, and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ultimately beat back the group in Syria two years later.
The SDF went on to jail thousands of suspected jihadists and detain tens of thousands of their relatives in camps.
- 61 countries -
Last month, Syrian troops drove Kurdish forces from swathes of northern Syria, sparking questions over the fate of the Daesh prisoners.
Lingering doubts about security pushed Washington to announce it would transfer them to Iraq to prevent “a breakout” that could threaten the region.
“We appreciate Iraq’s leadership and recognition that transferring the detainees is essential to regional security,” said head of CENTCOM Admiral Brad Cooper.
“Job well done to the entire Joint Force team who executed this exceptionally challenging mission on the ground and in the air,” he added.
Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation (NCIJC) said 5,704 Daesh detainees of 61 nationalities have arrived in Iraq.
They include 3,543 Syrians, 467 Iraqis, and another 710 detainees from other Arab countries.
There are also more than 980 foreigners including those from Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States.
The NCIJC said Iraq’s judiciary will interrogate the detainees before taking legal action against them.
Many prisons in Iraq are already packed with Daesh suspects.
Iraqi courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences and life terms to those convicted of terrorism offenses, including foreign fighters.
Under Iraqi law, terrorism and murder offenses are punishable by death, and execution decrees must be signed by the president.
The detainees in Syria were transferred to Baghdad’s Al-Karkh prison, once a US Army detention center known as Camp Cropper, where former ruler Saddam Hussein was held before his execution.
To make space for the newcomers, authorities moved thousands of prisoners from the Karkh prison to other facilities, a lawyer and an inmate told AFP on condition of anonymity.
- Repatriation -
Iraq has issued calls for countries to repatriate their nationals among the Daesh detainees, though this appears unlikely.
For years, Syria’s Kurdish forces also called on foreign governments to take back their citizens, but this was done on a small scale limited to women and children held in detention camps.
Most foreign families have left northeast Syria’s Al-Hol camp, which holds relatives of Daesh fighters, since the departure of Kurdish forces who previously guarded it, humanitarian sources told AFP on Thursday.
Last month, the Syrian government took over the camp from Kurdish forces who ceded territory as Damascus extended its control across swathes of Syria’s northeast.
The detainees from some 60 countries had for years been held in Syrian prisons run by Kurdish-led forces before the recapture of surrounding territory by Damascus prompted Washington to step in.
CENTCOM said it “completed a transfer mission following a nighttime flight from northeastern Syria to Iraq on Feb 12 to help ensure Daesh detainees remain secure in detention facilities.”
“The 23-day transfer mission began on Jan 21 and resulted in US forces successfully transporting more than 5,700 adult male Daesh fighters from detention facilities in Syria to Iraqi custody,” it added in a statement.
The US had previously announced it would transfer around 7,000 detainees.
Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq in 2014, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery.
Backed by US-led forces, Iraq proclaimed the defeat of Daesh in the country in 2017, and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ultimately beat back the group in Syria two years later.
The SDF went on to jail thousands of suspected jihadists and detain tens of thousands of their relatives in camps.
- 61 countries -
Last month, Syrian troops drove Kurdish forces from swathes of northern Syria, sparking questions over the fate of the Daesh prisoners.
Lingering doubts about security pushed Washington to announce it would transfer them to Iraq to prevent “a breakout” that could threaten the region.
“We appreciate Iraq’s leadership and recognition that transferring the detainees is essential to regional security,” said head of CENTCOM Admiral Brad Cooper.
“Job well done to the entire Joint Force team who executed this exceptionally challenging mission on the ground and in the air,” he added.
Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation (NCIJC) said 5,704 Daesh detainees of 61 nationalities have arrived in Iraq.
They include 3,543 Syrians, 467 Iraqis, and another 710 detainees from other Arab countries.
There are also more than 980 foreigners including those from Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States.
The NCIJC said Iraq’s judiciary will interrogate the detainees before taking legal action against them.
Many prisons in Iraq are already packed with Daesh suspects.
Iraqi courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences and life terms to those convicted of terrorism offenses, including foreign fighters.
Under Iraqi law, terrorism and murder offenses are punishable by death, and execution decrees must be signed by the president.
The detainees in Syria were transferred to Baghdad’s Al-Karkh prison, once a US Army detention center known as Camp Cropper, where former ruler Saddam Hussein was held before his execution.
To make space for the newcomers, authorities moved thousands of prisoners from the Karkh prison to other facilities, a lawyer and an inmate told AFP on condition of anonymity.
- Repatriation -
Iraq has issued calls for countries to repatriate their nationals among the Daesh detainees, though this appears unlikely.
For years, Syria’s Kurdish forces also called on foreign governments to take back their citizens, but this was done on a small scale limited to women and children held in detention camps.
Most foreign families have left northeast Syria’s Al-Hol camp, which holds relatives of Daesh fighters, since the departure of Kurdish forces who previously guarded it, humanitarian sources told AFP on Thursday.
Last month, the Syrian government took over the camp from Kurdish forces who ceded territory as Damascus extended its control across swathes of Syria’s northeast.
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