Video footage shows bodyguards traveling with Azerbaijan’s president visiting Washington for the inaugural meeting of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace punching, kicking and chasing protesters outside a Washington hotel on Thursday.
Demonstrators calling for the release of political prisoners were driven from the street near the motorcade of Azerbaijan’s leader Ilham Aliyev.
Clashes broke out outside the Waldorf Astoria on Pennsylvania Avenue, blocks from the White House, where Aliyev is staying during an official visit.
Aliyev spent more than two decades suppressing political opposition and dissent in Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan’s embassy defended its security personnel in a statement, accusing protesters of “violently attempting to enter the protected area and taking dangerous actions against the presidential vehicle” as Aliyev’s motorcade approached the hotel.
“The Presidential Security Service has no choice but to intervene immediately,” the statement said, arguing that any attempt to intercept the escorted vehicle carrying the head of state “constitutes a serious security concern.”
The embassy said its staff “always work in strict coordination with the host country”.
Protesters tell a different story. Rahim Yagublu, 27, an Uber driver whose father is a jailed politician in Azerbaijan, told The Washington Post that he was punched in the jaw and kicked in the stomach. Adil Amrakhli, 35, said he injured his leg fleeing from guards and at least four others were injured.
“We wanted to hold a peaceful protest to demand freedom for political prisoners in Azerbaijan,” Amrakli, who lives in Alexandria, Virginia, told the outlet.
Questions about the attack were referred to the State Department by the DC Metropolitan Police, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The US Secret Service said the hotel was “part of the event security perimeter” because it was where the Azerbaijani delegation stayed, with its role limited to providing security infrastructure for visiting heads of state.
The incident drew immediate comparisons to a 2017 clash in Washington in which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bodyguards attacked protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence, injuring 11 people, including a police officer. A similar altercation involving Erdogan’s security detail took place outside the Brookings Institution the previous year.
Aliyev was in Washington for the first meeting of the Trump Board of Peace, a new body the US president announced in Davos last month. Trump described it as having “unlimited potential” to become “the most consequential international organization in history”.
The meeting, which focused mainly on a fragile Gaza ceasefire and reconstruction efforts envisioned by the colonists for the devastated coastline, attracted more than two dozen world leaders – but some US allies, including France, Germany and Italy, chose to attend only as observers.
Azerbaijan is one of the countries Trump has donated to a $7 billion aid package tied to the initiative. Aliyev posted on social media on Wednesday that he met with Eliot Brand, chief executive of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (IPAC).
