You have to see it to believe it.

#Erdoğan'ın korumaları kavgaya karıştı https://t.co/gsi1iQ68Ye #amerikaninsesi pic.twitter.com/Jv3g5E7AVA

— Amerika'nın Sesi (@VOATurkish) May 17, 2017

Note that an unusually large number of the aggressors are wearing suits. That’s because they’re part of the Turkish presidential security detail, says the Guardian:

Nine people were hurt and two arrests were made during an altercation at the Turkish ambassador’s residence in the US capital during a visit by Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

According to witnesses, a brawl erupted when Erdoğan’s security detail attacked protesters carrying the flag of the Kurdish PYD party outside the residence. A local NBC television affiliate reported Erdoğan was inside the building at the time.

“They think they can engage in the same sort of suppression of protest and free speech that they engage in in Turkey,” said one protester. Right, and it’s not the first time Erdogan’s goon squad has behaved that way. Last year they got frisky with protesters and reporters outside the Brookings Institution, leading the Secret Service to intervene. “This is America!” one agent yelled at one of the thugs. That’s the deeper offense here — it’s not just the brutality against protesters, it’s the affront to American values committed repeatedly, with impunity, by guests. Every one of them should be prosecuted or, if diplomatic immunity makes that impossible, expelled and barred from traveling here again.

But they won’t be, because Turkey is an important strategic ally. That needs to change, as much as possible, especially now that the country has transitioned to dictatorship. Until it does, Team Erdogan will crack more heads during their vacations to Washington.

Update: Yep, they’re Erdogan’s goons.

US officials confirm to NBC News men who beat protesters outside Turkish Embassy in DC are Pres. Erdogan's bodyguards https://t.co/jaxfflCu7G

— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) May 17, 2017