Turkish Presidential guards showed astounding levels of brutality towards female activists in Ecuador. Three women were violently hauled away and, according to their accounts, beaten in the face and breasts moments after heckling Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In an act of protest the three activist started screaming “murderer” at Erdogan while he was addressing the crowd at Quito's Centre for Higher National Studies. They were allegedly referring to Turkey’s military assaults in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
In a statement after the battering, the women reportedly said that their faces, breasts and “intimate parts” were targeted by Erdogan’s security staff.
This is not the first time Erdogan’s guards have roughed up Ecuadorian activists during his first official two-day visit to the Latin American country.
On Thursday, presidential security scuffled with a group of pro-Kurdish protesters who rallied against the Turkish president’s military operation in the southeastern regions of Turkey.
An Ecuadorean lawmaker Diego Vintimilla, who was with the protesters, was reportedly injured in a confrontation with one of Erdogan’s security staffers.