Help hold Turkey accountable for the Sheridan Circle attack

In 2017, Turkish President Erdogan visited Washington, D.C. and was greeted by protests over Turkey's undemocratic behaviors. In response to those peaceful protests, Erdogan's security guards viciously attacked protesters on American soil.

The House subsequently passed a unanimous resolution calling for Turkey to be held accountable for the attack, but the Turkish government has refused to cooperate with the investigation.

Now, Republican and Democratic members of the Hellenic Caucus, Armenian Caucus, Congressional Hellenic Israel Alliance Caucus and the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission are planning to send a letter to the Biden Administration urging it to hold Turkey accountable for the Sheridan Circle attack. 

Please add your name to the call for accountability and help secure justice for the victims. We cannot let Turkey's repression stand. 

Please contact your Representative right now and ask them to add their name to the letter! 

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Here is the text of the letter:

 

The Honorable Antony Blinken
United States Secretary of State
Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20520

 

Dear Secretary Blinken:

We write to you regarding Lusik Usoyan, et al., v. The Republic of Turkey, and Kasim Kurd, et al., v. The Republic of Turkey. The plaintiffs in these civil proceedings have pursued a years-long effort to hold Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his security detail accountable for the unprovoked attacks unleashed against them while exercising their fundamental right to freedom of speech outside of the Turkish Ambassador’s Residence on May 16, 2017.  The Usoyan and Kurd lawsuits represent the only viable means for the victims to obtain a remedy for the significant injuries they sustained to their persons and to their constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. 

We draw your attention to the immediate aftermath of the attacks in which several of President Erdogan’s security agents were criminally charged for the commission of violent crimes against these peaceful protestors.  At that time, the government of the District of Columbia, esteemed members of the United States Senate, and the unanimity of the House of Representatives demanded that the Turkish agents who perpetrated these violent attacks be criminally prosecuted. 

More specifically, within one week of the Sheridan Circle attack, Congress responded by unanimously condemning the attack and demanding that those responsible be held accountable, passing H. Res. 354 by a vote of 397 – 0.  See H. Res. 354, 115th Cong. (2017).  Among other things, the resolution expressed the House of Representatives’ baseline conviction that the “rights to peacefully assemble and freely express one’s views are essential to the fabric of American democracy.”  

As you know, the Turkish agents who perpetrated these attacks departed the United States and have never been brought to American justice. The American legal system affords the plaintiffs a venue for obtaining recourse in this matter, but President Erdogan has chosen to deploy delay tactics and to flout the relevant courts' authority at every turn.   

When Turkey sought to defend itself by invoking sovereign immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held that the FSIA is not a legitimate defense for violating the rights of Americans on American soil and cannot be applied in this circumstance.  Specifically, the Court found that the actions of the Turkish security detail were “not of a nature and quality that Congress intended to shield from liability.”  In March 2021, the leadership of the House and Senate Foreign Affairs Committees sent you a letter making clear that we agreed with the District Court’s characterization of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. This letter also requested that the Department of State file an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals to make clear the principle that foreign security personnel should not enjoy immunity under the FSIA for engaging in unprovoked assaults on peaceful protestors.  We commend the Department of State for submitting a brief, which aided the appeals court’s understanding of the FSIA and contributed to its unanimous rejection of Turkey’s appeal. 

 In January 2022, Turkey appealed the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia’s decision to deny Turkey immunity under the FSIA to the Supreme Court.  We appreciate the Biden Administration’s brief amicus curiae filed to the Supreme Court, which defended the Appeals Court decision and argued that the Supreme Court should not take up the petition.  With its loss before the Supreme Court, Turkey has abandoned the Usoyan and Kurd litigation, thus demonstrating its intention to avoid any and all accountability to the plaintiffs.

We know that the State Department is currently pursuing a multi-faceted engagement with Turkey and believe that a just resolution of the Usoyan and Kurd cases have an important role to play in ensuring those efforts are constructive.  We reiterate our position that Turkey must be held to account for the violent attacks perpetrated by its agents at Sheridan Circle.

            When Congress unanimously passed H. Res. 354 condemning the violent attacks, it made the unequivocal declaration that such acts perpetrated by foreign actors on American soil against Americans cannot and will not be tolerated – that there must be consequences.  We call upon the State Department, acting on behalf of the United States government and respecting the will of Congress, to press this matter with President Erdogan and Turkish authorities as an essential element for relations between our two countries.