WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Turkey\u2019s bid to shut down lawsuits in U.S. courts stemming from\u00a0a violent brawl outside the Turkish ambassador\u2019s residence\u00a0in Washington more than five years ago that left anti-government protesters badly beaten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The justices did not comment in turning away Turkey\u2019s arguments that American law shields foreign countries from most lawsuits. Lower courts ruled that those protections did not extend to the events of May 16, 2017, when during a visit by\u00a0Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, \u201cTurkish security forces violently clashed with a crowd of protesters,\u201d as one judge described the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Supreme Court\u2019s action allows the lawsuits to proceed. In the lawsuits, protesters claim they were brutally punched and kicked, cursed at and greeted with slurs and throat-slashing gestures. One woman slipped in and out of consciousness and has suffered seizures, and others reported post-traumatic stress, depression, concussions and nightmares, according to the complaints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The high court had put off a decision about whether to intervene for months, asking for the Biden administration\u2019s views on the legal issues presented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turkey can be sued in these circumstances, the Justice Department said in its high court filing, concluding that lower courts were correct in finding that the U.S. ally does not have legal immunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawyers for the Turkish government had told the court that Erdogan\u2019s security detail had discretion to use physical force because it was protecting its head of state in a potentially dangerous situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They described some protesters as \u201csupporters of a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization that poses a genuine national security threat to Turkey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The altercation\u00a0was caught on camera and led to criminal charges\u00a0against some of Erdogan\u2019s security officers and civilian supporters, two of whom pleaded guilty. Most other charges were dropped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The violence occurred as Erdogan was returning to the ambassador\u2019s residence after a White House visit, where\u00a0he and then-President Donald Trump\u00a0pledged cooperation in fighting the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Erdogan remained in his car after it arrived at the ambassador\u2019s residence while an initial skirmish took place. The lawsuits claim that he ordered a second, more violent attack. Turkey says he did no such thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Supreme Court on Monday rejected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1955,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953\/revisions\/1955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}