A former presidential palace official in Slovakia has made serious accusations against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bodyguards. Two bodyguards broke into her office during the Turkish politician’s state visit and harassed her. Not only was she touched inappropriately: when she called for help, the two men covered her mouth.
The incident took place in March 2015, but has only now been made public. Vladimíra Marcinková, who worked in the presidential palace and was 24 years old at the time, described the anxious moments. The two bodyguards entered Vladimíra Marcinková’s office uninvited, approached her without saying a word and wanted to take a picture with her. She resisted, but the duo then started touching her inappropriately.
A colleague came to the officer’s aid
Although her mouth was covered, her colleague could hear her cries for help and rushed to her aid. Only then did Marcinková’s bodyguards let go. Her then colleague confirmed that this is how the situation happened. “It was unpleasant and unexpected, because you don’t expect something like that at official meetings at the highest level,” the shocked colleague told the media. Then he stayed in her office in case the Turkish men returned. Marcinková explained that it took her a long time to recover from the shock after the attack.
Türkiye did not respond to the complaint
Marcinková believes that the bodyguards deliberately chose a location in the presidential palace that was not covered by surveillance cameras for their attack. She did not personally inform then Slovak President Andrej Kiska of the incident, but colleagues did. He confirmed this story and explained that a complaint had been lodged on his behalf through diplomatic channels against the behavior of the bodyguards. However, he never received a response from Turkey.
The alleged victim said at the time that she had no desire to speak publicly about the incident, but praised Kiska’s actions afterwards. During subsequent business trips abroad, she felt very unsafe, even though she never experienced a similar incident again.
Source: Krone
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