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Shop NowThe Turkish government takes the attack on two of our marines seriously and they’re doing something about it. According to the Criminal Court of Izmir, ten of the people accused of Monday’s assault were arrested on Tuesday. They’re charged with the equivalent of kidnapping, “deprivation of liberty of more than one person.” Five more haven’t been arrested yet but they’re going on trial anyway. Both soldiers are safe, rescued by their alert buddies with help from local cops.
Marines jumped by Youth Union
The marines were wearing civilian clothes while on shore leave and quietly minding their own business. Nobody was expecting any trouble at all from the locals, we’re on friendly terms with the Turks and were playing wargames together before the USS Wasp floated into port.
It seems that Turkey has “useful idiots” like the ones we have here protesting the war against Hamas.
Our marines were “assaulted by a group of two women and 13 men who were members of the Turkish Youth Union.” the Izmir Governorship explains in a social media statement that the young rebels are “a national youth and student group that has an anti-American and anti-imperialist stance.”
They get support from the Turkish “Vatan Party,” who are a bunch of hard-core nationalists.
The ten agitators under arrest for trying to stuff two marines into sacks on the street will “appeal the court’s decision and ask for a lifting of arrests” on Wednesday, their lawyer notes.
It’s not clear if he’s also representing the five being tried who aren’t in custody yet. The mob assault was sudden and totally unexpected. It’s a good thing there were enough of our own troops near enough to stop the attack.
Yankee go home
The group responsible posted a video of the assault on their own website. It reportedly shows “multiple people attacking the two Marines.” They were chanting “Yankee go home!” as they “try to put a bag over one Marine’s head.”
At the end of the clip, a “link to join the group” pops up. For now, “as a safety precaution, U.S. service members ported in Izmir are restricted to their ship.”
Our Embassy in Turkey “confirmed the attack.” They also “said the service members were safe and thanked the Turkish authorities ‘for their rapid response and ongoing investigation.‘”
The rowdy teens weren’t expecting the five plain clothes U.S. Marines who “saw the incident from a distance, and got involved.” That’s what they do.
According to the Sixth Fleet, the two servicemen in distress “were aided by other Marines in the area and were taken to a local hospital for evaluation but were not injured and have returned to the USS Wasp.” Nobody on our side is in trouble for anything and weren’t even detained for questioning. Even so, they’re “cooperating with investigators.”
The Wasp just pulled into port on Sunday for a regularly scheduled visit. The “Marines are part of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is on a routine deployment aboard the Wasp in the U.S. Sixth Fleet’s area of operations, including the eastern Mediterranean Sea, where it recently completed a bilateral training exercise with Turkey.“
