WASHINGTON (A.W.)—Charges have been reduced against Sinan Narin and Eyüp Yıldırım—two of the pro-Erdoğan attackers who assaulted peaceful U.S. protesters on May 16 outside the Turkish Ambassador’s residence in Washington D.C.
A plea agreement calls for serving just one year and one day for their crimes. The official sentencing will be on March 15, 2018, at 10 a.m.
“A proposed one-year sentence for a brutal, unapologetic foreign-government-directed assault against Americans on U.S. soil is an absolute travesty,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “The Erdoğan-ordered attack wasn’t just a violent hate crime against Americans but an open assault on American values. This sentence, if approved by the court, will effectively serve as a green light to Erdoğan and other foreign dictators intent on exporting their violence to American shores.”
Hamparian, who live-posted video of the attacks, was on hand at the courthouse, along with the Armenian Legal Center for Justice and Human Rights team, when the plea agreement was announced.
Narin and Yıldırım are among 19 suspects accused of attacking protesters outside the Turkish Ambassador’s Washington residence. On June 19, it was reported that United States Marshals had arrested the two Turkish-American men for their role in the beatings.
Narin is a Virginia resident, and Yıldırım is an owner of a construction company in New Jersey. Narin was charged with felony aggravated assault and misdemeanor assault or threatened assault in a menacing manner, while Yıldırım was charged with felony assault with significant bodily injury, felony aggravated assault, and misdemeanor assault or threatened assault in a menacing manner.
On Aug. 20, a grand jury in the U.S. capital issued indictments against a total of 19 people, including 15 members of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security detail, for their brutal attack.
On Sept. 26, the Armenian Weekly reported that Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu had visited two men and offered them Turkey’s “love and greetings.”
Çavuşoğlu tweeted two photos of himself posing with Sinan Narin and Eyüp Yıldırım, who are wearing orange jumpsuits. “While visiting our brothers Sinan Narin and Eyüp Yıldırım, who continue to be tried in Washington, we transferred to them our nation’s love and greetings,” read the Sept. 23 tweet accompanying the photographs.
The Armenian Weekly is following the story and will provide updates as they become available.
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