Kurdish activists blocked from Turkish minister’s D.C. briefing

Acrimony between the Turkey’s government and Kurdish activists was on full display at the National Press Club Tuesday, when the organization hosting an event with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu prevented two individuals from attending the event.

Kani Xulam, an activist who heads the Washington, D.C.-based American Kurdish Information Network, says he was forcibly removed by security guards working with the Turkish Heritage Organization, despite having secured an invitation to the event.

Sam Husseini a writer and political activist with the Institute for Public Accuracy, who videotaped a brief scuffle between a Mr. Xanum and group of men wearing dark suits near the entrance of the event, was also not allowed in, despite being a member of the Press Club.

Representatives from the Turkish Heritage Organization, a pro-Turkey group that was hosting the event, were overheard saying that the two men were being disruptive.

A reporter from The Washington Times, who had witnessed the interaction, was then approached by Turkish Heritage Organization President Ali Cinar, who told the reporter that he too would have to leave. Upon providing identification to Mr.Cinar, the reporter was told that he could stay and report on the event.

Mr. Xulam appeared later in a hallway near the entrance of the Press Club holding a sign that said: “Freedom of speech is a two-way street, let my people speak Kurdish!”

It was not immediately clear whether anyone else was removed from the audience on the 13th floor of the Press Club before Mr. Cavusoglu began his remarks.

The Turkish foreign minister, who is in Washington this week to participate in a summit of the 68-nation international coalition battling the Islamic State, made comments on a range of issues, but expressed particular frustration for what he described as U.S.-support for Kurdish “terrorists” in Syria.

While Washington has backed Kurdish factions as a ground force against the Islamic State, Ankara accuses several of the factions of carrying out attacks inside Turkey during a decades-old separatist insurgency against the Turkish state.