Handan Kazancı
May 26, 2017•Update: May 27, 2017
By Nazli Yuzbasioglu
ANKARA
Turkey on Thursday harshly criticized a resolution by the U.S. House of Representatives condemning last week’s clash outside the Turkish embassy residence in Washington, D.C.
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu called the resolution "one-sided" and said it "distorts the facts”.
“We reject the resolution in question,” Muftuoglu said in a statement.
He said the May 16 incident that occurred during a visit by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu came “as a result of the refusal of U.S. authorities to take necessary security measures, despite repeated official warnings.
“There is no answer to the question why the U.S. authorities did not take proper security measures in front of the Embassy residence as they did in other stages of the visit,” Muftuoglu added.
The resolution passed by the House foreign affairs committee calls for charging and prosecuting Turkish security officials under U.S. and urges efforts to prevent future incidents.
Turkey's Foreign Ministry on Monday summoned the U.S. ambassador to Ankara in protest against the “aggressive and unprofessional actions” of U.S. law enforcement officials towards the foreign minister’s security detail outside the Embassy residence.
Fighting between anti-Turkey protesters and members of the Turkish American community resulted in 11 injuries, according to police.
