Video shows Turkey’s Erdogan watched his guards clash with protesters

by Julia Manchester - 05/18/17 6:07 PM ET

New video captures Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan watching members of his security detail violently clash with protesters in Washington on Tuesday.

The Hill confirmed that the video, uploaded to YouTube on Thursday, was shot by a staff member at VOA Turkish, a multimedia Internet and TV service.

{mosads}In the video, Erdogan emerges from a car in the driveway to watch the incident before heading inside the Turkish ambassador’s residence. His bodyguards are visible from Erdogan’s car kicking and punching protesters.

Roughly two dozen protesters had gathered outside of the Turkish Embassy to protest the country’s leader’s policies.

Nine people were taken to local hospitals following the demonstration. The Turkish Embassy said on Wednesday that Erdogan’s bodyguards were acting in “self-defense” during the incident and the protesters were affiliated with the terrorist group PKK. A protest leader denied that anyone involved had any ties or sympathies to the PKK.

The clash has been fiercely criticized by Washington, D.C., police and local officials who described it as a violent attack on peaceful demonstrators.

“We are communicating our concern to the Turkish government in the strongest possible terms,” the State Department said Wednesday.

Erdogan was in Washington, D.C., to meet with President Trump.