Turkish thuggery unleashed

Memo to the Turkish Embassy: The First Amendment, including the right to peacefully assemble, still applies here.

Nine people ended up in the hospital Tuesday after a melee near the embassy in Washington, D.C., that reportedly involved an attack by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s own security detail on peaceful protesters.

Video of the thuggery by blacksuited security forces, kicking demonstrators already on the ground, went viral this week. The demonstrators were a collection of Erdogan opponents — Kurdish-Americans, Armenian-Americans, and some Turks simply opposed to Erdogan’s increasingly autocratic ways.

Metropolitan Police Chief Peter Newsham told a news conference Wednesday, “We intend to assure that there is accountability for anyone involved in this assault. Yesterday we witnessed what appeared to be a brutal attack on peaceful protests.”

The U.S. State Department has also expressed its official concern “in the strongest possible terms.”

The fact that one D.C. policeman and two Secret Service agents were also assaulted during the encounter surely upped the ante on the event and its aftermath.

The melee followed an otherwise uneventful Oval Office meeting between President Trump and Erdogan at which the two agreed to fight terrorism, Erdogan’s definition of “terrorists” sadly including just about anyone who disagrees with him.

And that’s what we saw playing out later that day near the Turkish embassy grounds, when otherwise peaceful protesters were set upon by Turkish government thugs.

Now while Chief Newsham vows to pursue the culprits involved, it is likely that some of them were en route back to Turkey that evening. So it might remain for the State Department to toss out anyone connected to the incident — at least to demonstrate that here no one is above the law.