Dozens of lawmakers had been concerned in a fistfight in Turkey’s parliament on Friday (native time) as they argued over a jailed opposition lawmaker who was stripped of his parliamentary immunity this yr.
The 30-minute altercation, during which at the least two MPs had been injured, pressured the listening to to be suspended. The MPs finally voted once more and rejected an opposition proposal to reinstate the parliamentary mandate of the lawyer and human rights activist Can Atalay.
Atalay gained his seat in an election final yr after campaigning from his jail cell.
The parliamentary unrest erupted after Alpay Ozalan, a member of the ruling Justice and Growth Occasion (AKP), attacked Ahmet Sik, a member of the leftist Staff’ Occasion of Turkey (TIP), who had condemned the federal government’s remedy of Atalay.
(The video under is from Reuters)
“It is not stunning that you simply name Atalay a terrorist,” he mentioned.
“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.
Ozalan, a former footballer, walked into the stands and pushed Sik to the bottom, an AFP journalist advised parliament.
Whereas on the bottom, Sik was punched a number of occasions by AKP MPs. Dozens of MPs joined the battle.
Photos posted on-line present the battle and, later, employees cleansing blood stains from the ground of parliament. One MP from the Republican Individuals’s Occasion (CHP) and one other from the Individuals’s Equality and Democracy (DEM) occasion suffered head accidents.
Ozgur Ozel, head of the primary opposition occasion, CHP, denounced the violence.
“I’m ashamed to have witnessed this example,” he added.
The Speaker of Parliament mentioned that the 2 MPs who began the battle could be punished.
JUDICIAL BATTLE
Atalay was stripped of his seat following a badly-tempered parliamentary session in January, regardless of efforts by his fellow left-wing MPs to halt proceedings.
He’s one in all 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, Atalay, 48, campaigned for a seat in parliament in earthquake-ravaged Hatay province in elections due in Might 2023.
He was elected as a member of the leftist TIP occasion, which has three seats in Parliament.
The victory sparked a authorized standoff between supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and opposition leaders that introduced Turkey to the brink of a constitutional disaster final yr.
Parliament’s determination in January to expel Atalay got here after a Supreme Court docket of Attraction ruling 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, which critiques whether or not judges’ selections adjust to Turkey’s primary legislation, mentioned Atalay’s dismissal as a member of parliament was “null and void.”
Lawmakers from the AKP and the far-right Nationalist Motion Occasion (MHP) joined forces to defeat the opposition movement on Friday.
The Turkish parliament has beforehand voted to carry the immunity from prosecution of opposition politicians – a lot of them Kurdish – whom the federal government considers “terrorists”.
