Kurdish and antifascist activists protest against Trump's meeting with Turkish dictator Erdogan

Video featuring confrontations with Erdogen supporters, a YPG veteran's speech, and pursuing Erdogan's motorcade 7 min 19 sec

On the 13th of November, as public impeachment hearings started, Donald Trump welcomed Turkish dictator Erdogan to the White House. Outside the meeting, Kurdish and antifascist protesters banged drums, chased away pro-Erdogan provocateurs, and attempted to cut off Erdogan's escape route from the meeting.

All of this is while Turkish troops occupy part of Norther Syria and are destroying Kurdish towns.

The last time Erdogan visited Trump, his thuggish bodyguards stormed through police lines, assaulted Kurdish activists and their friends, then proceeded to assault Secret Service agents as well. Most escaped back to Turkey, two of their US based helpers were sent to prison and four arrest warrants remain unserved from that vicious assault in the streets of DC by a foreign dictator's thugs.

This time around, there hundreds of protesters in Lafayette Square and then in the streets, and the crowd was reinforced by YPG/YPJ war veterans. Erdogan's thugs were almost nowhere to be found and his bodyguards were not seen at all. Only two attempts were made by Erdogan supporters to interfere: at one point multiple apparent supporters of the Turkish fascist/terorrist group Gray Wolves showed up and were expelled by the crowd. Later a livestreamer from Turkish state television attempted to enter the crowd with the same results. The Washington Post reports one of the first group flashed hand gesture (a gang sign) associatesd with the Grey Wolves and confirms the identity of the Turkish state TV livestreamer.

In both cases they found they had stirred up a hornet's nest. In the usual fascist style these provocateurs quickly retreated back to police protection on finding they were in over their heads. In the second incident with the livestreamer from Turkish state TV, horse cops rode onto the scene and started moving in close, only to hurredly retreat when the drums of Kurdish power sounded and the horses had second thoughts about submitting to their masters. It is rare to see horse cops run from a confrontation but that's exactly what happened. The importance of this incident cannot be underestimated, as that livestreamer could have been gathering close-up face pictures to pass to Turkish intelligence and military units. The Grey Wolves could have been attempting the same for their own use or that of Turkish intelligence. Neither was successful, and both were quickly driven away.

Trump's meeting with Erdogan was cut short, and thus the press conference started early. When it did, the protest became as noisy as possible to ensure Kurdish, Greek, Armenian, and other anti-Fascist and pro-secular voiced were heard. The main thrust of the chants was that Erdogan is a terrorist, Erdogan and ISIS are essentially the same thing, plus "Shame on Trump!" for inviting this murderous thug to the White House and giving him a green light to invade Syria in the first place. One sign said there was no need to look far for the third leader of ISIS, as he was right there in the White House talking to Trump.

When the press conference ended, protesters marched into the streets and headed for 15th st, where Erodgan had stayed in the Williard Hotel the night before and his motorcade was lining up to leave from the E st exit.. A police line blocked the advance of protesters at G st, two blocks away. Scouts sent to recon all other exits found no activity, and one scout circled the area, got into a civilian crowd at 15th and Constitution Ave, and yelled "Rojava! Rojava" at the departing motorcade, less then 100 feet from Erdogan and all his fleeing thugs. They drove south on 15th st across the mall, as fast as they seemed to be able to control their cars. This created the impression of a headlong retreat. Bullies are usually cowards, and apparently Erdogen is no exception.