Just after Turkey's strongman Recep Tayyip ErdoДџan visited the president at the White House yesterday, a massive brawl broke out outside the residence of the Turkish ambassador, leaving nine people injured.  Protesters had gathered to demonstrate against ErdoДџan's recent power-grab and his crackdown on the political opposition.

ErdoДџan's bodyguards, some dressed in business suits and others in more casual attire, appeared to attack some of the protesters as police tried to keep order.

Daily Caller:

Protesters critical of the Turkish government claimed that Erdogan's bodyguards or security staffers working for the Turkish embassy launched the attack. Video of the fight showed men in suits kicking people, some while they were on the ground. The footage shows some victims covered in blood.

Aram Suren Hamparian, the president of the Armenian National Committee in America, filmed some of the incident and says he believes that the instigators were Erdogan bodyguards or security personnel working for the Turkish ambassador.

"They just literally broke through the line, crossed the street, and stopped the protesters," Hamparian told The Daily Caller by phone.

Hamparian, who is highly critical of Erdogan, said that two dozen anti-Erdogan protesters, mostly Armenian and Kurdish, were protesting peacefully across the street from the residence. He said that the onslaught broke out suddenly. He says the videos show that the pro-Erdogan fighters appeared to be professionals of some sort. He also said they outnumbered the protesters.

"It all took place at once. It was by very capable people. It felt to me, it looked to me like a highly orchestrated attack," he added.

Hamparian said that some Erdogan supporters were not violent. He said that he spent most of the night at the hospital with some victims of the attack. One man who Hamparian helped received between 10 and 15 stitches, he said. Another woman underwent a CT scan.

Halil Mutlu, a cousin of Erdogan's and a board member of the Turkish American Steering Committee, was spotted on the sidelines of the fray. At one point he was seen leading a pro-Erdogan chant aimed at the government critics.

Washington, D.C. police are experienced in dealing with protests of this kind and are usually able to keep them in check.  But it appears that ErdoДџan's thugs made things exponentially worse by wading into the crowd and beating people.

The Trump-ErdoДџan meeting was overshadowed by the Comey controversies, so it hasn't received much play in the media.  But if ErdoДџan is willing to countenance this sort of thuggery away from home, imagine what his tactics are when the demonstrators are in the streets of Ankara.