The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Turkey's bid to dismiss two lawsuits filed by demonstrators seeking monetary damages after accusing Turkish security forces of injuring them during a 2017 protest in Washington that coincided with a visit by President Tayyip Erdogan.
The justices turned away an appeal by Turkey of lower court rulings allowing the litigation to proceed, rejecting the Nato ally's argument that it has immunity from such legal action in the US under a federal law called the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
At issue in the litigation is a melee involving members of Mr Erdogan's security detail that occurred as protesters demonstrated outside the Turkish ambassador's residence in Washington on May 6, 2017. Mr Erdogan was in the US capital to meet then-president Donald Trump. The incident strained relations between Turkey and the US.
Two lawsuits were filed in 2018 — one case brought by 15 plaintiffs and the other by five — seeking to hold Turkey's government responsible and asking for monetary damages for injuries that included concussions, seizures and lost teeth. The plaintiffs sought tens of millions of dollars, according to court papers.
The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act limits the jurisdiction of American courts over lawsuits against foreign governments.
Turkey has blamed the brawl on demonstrators linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party. The police chief in the US capital described the incident as a “brutal attack” on peaceful protesters.
President Joe Biden's administration had urged the Supreme Court not to hear Turkey's appeal to avoid the lawsuits. The administration said that when foreign security personnel deploy force in ways that are not related to protecting officials from bodily harm they are acting outside their legal protections.
Turkey had argued that a failure by the Supreme Court to reverse that ruling threatened to disrupt US foreign relations and “invites reciprocal erosion of immunity for US security agents protecting American presidents, diplomats and missions abroad”.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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What can you do?
Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses
Seek professional advice from a legal expert
You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor
You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline
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