Turkish Employees’ Celebration (TIP) lawmaker Ahmet Sik faces lawmakers from the ruling Justice and Improvement Celebration (AKP) throughout a rare assembly of the Turkish parliament to debate the return of jailed opposition lawmaker Can Atalay to the meeting, in Ankara, Turkey. | Picture credit score: Reuters
A brawl broke out in Turkey’s parliament on Friday (16 August 2024) after lawmakers mentioned the destiny of a jailed opposition determine who was controversially stripped of his parliamentary immunity earlier this 12 months.
Lawmakers met after the nation’s Constitutional Court docket earlier this month overturned parliament’s choice to expel Can Atalay from his parliamentary seat.
Lawyer and human rights advocate Mr Atalay gained his seat final 12 months after campaigning from his jail cell.
Ahmet Sik, a member of the leftist Employees’ Celebration of Turkey (TIP), on Friday defended Atalay in opposition to assaults in opposition to him by lawmakers from the ruling social gathering.
“It isn’t stunning that you just name Atalay a terrorist,” he stated.
“All residents ought to know that the largest terrorists on this nation are these sitting on these benches,” he added, pointing to the ruling majority.
That remark sparked indignant responses from ruling social gathering lawmakers, prompting the president to name for a recess.
Clashes broke out after former footballer Alpay Ozalan, a lawmaker from Erdogan’s ruling AKP social gathering, stormed the podium and pushed Sik to the bottom, a spokesman stated. AFP journalist in parliament.
The ruling social gathering MPs punched Sik a number of instances whereas he was on the bottom. At the least two opposition MPs have been injured through the battle.
Footage posted on-line confirmed the scuffle after which workers cleansing blood stains from the ground of parliament.
Ozgur Ozel, head of the principle opposition social gathering, CHP, denounced the violence.
“I’m ashamed to have witnessed this example,” he added.
– Authorized battle –
Mr Atalay was stripped of his seat following a bad-tempered parliamentary session in January, regardless of efforts by his fellow left-wing MPs to cease the proceedings.
He’s one in every of seven defendants sentenced in 2022 to 18 years in jail following a controversial trial that additionally noticed award-winning philanthropist Osman Kavala jailed for all times.
From jail, Mr. Atalay, 48, campaigned for election as a deputy, operating within the Could 2023 common election within the earthquake-ravaged Hatay province.
He was elected as a member of the leftist TIP social gathering, which has three seats in Parliament.
However that election victory led to a authorized standoff between supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and opposition leaders that introduced Turkey to the brink of a constitutional disaster final 12 months.
Parliament’s choice in January to expel Atalay got here after a ruling by the supreme appeals courtroom upheld his conviction, paving the way in which for the transfer to strip him of his parliamentary immunity.
However on August 1, the Constitutional Court docket, a physique charged with reviewing whether or not judges’ rulings adjust to Turkey’s fundamental legislation, revealed its ruling on the case.
Mr Atalay’s dismissal as a member of parliament was “null and void”, he stated.
The Turkish parliament has beforehand voted to raise the immunity from prosecution of opposition politicians — lots of them Kurdish — whom the federal government considers “terrorists.”
