15 members of the Turkish Youth Union (TGB), a radical and fringe organisation opposed to Turkey-US relations, were arrested after a group of them staged an incident in the city of Izmir in the last few hours, where they attacked a US soldier and another US serviceman who came to help him.
The incident has caused widespread criticism among a majority of citizens and media in Turkey, which reported that 10 of the detainees were imprisoned while 5 others were released under judicial control. The governor of Izmir reported that the suspects attacked two US soldiers dressed as civilians who were walking in the streets of Izmir, where the USS Wasp, a US amphibious assault ship that recently took part in NATO military exercises with Turkey in the Mediterranean, has been docked since 1 September.
Five other US servicemen who observed the scene tried to intervene until several policemen appeared and quickly detained the attackers, who tried to put a bag over the head of one of the servicemen. In a statement, the US embassy in Ankara confirmed the attack, noting that the servicemen were in good condition and thanking the Turkish authorities for their ‘swift response and ongoing investigation’ into the incident. White House sources said they were nonetheless ‘concerned about this attack’, while thanking Turkish police for ‘holding those responsible to account’.
The TGB, a fringe extremist organisation linked to the Fatherland Party (Vatan Partisi or VP in Turkish) with a mixed ideology of Marxism, nationalism and pan-Eurasianism, and which rejects ties with the USA and favours rapprochement with China and Russia, claimed responsibility for the action on its profile on X by posting a video of the assault, in which its members are seen covering the head of an American soldier with a bag while shouting ‘Yankee go home! ‘ in English.
‘US soldiers, who carry the blood of our soldiers and thousands of Palestinians on their hands, cannot desecrate our country,’ the TGB stated via social media. This is not the first incident of this kind involving members of this organisation, which in this way protest over another incident during the 2003 Iraq war, when several Turkish soldiers were detained by US soldiers, who placed hoods over their heads and held them for three days, sparking outrage in Turkey.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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