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Brawl between ruling and opposition parties in the Turkish parliament on August 16, 2024. Photo: TIP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A brawl broke out in Turkey’s parliament on Friday during a session to discuss reinstating a lawmaker who had been stripped of his parliamentary membership. Opposition parties accused lawmakers from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of attacking an MP who accused them of being “terrorists.”
The incident began when Ahmed Isik, from the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TIP), came to the defence of the ousted MP and criticized the AKP.
“You are shameless. You have zero shame and dignity,” he said in a speech at the legislature, pointing to a group of AKP lawmakers. “Let everyone know that the greatest terror organization in this country… are those who are sitting here and the greatest terrorists are these.”
Afterward, a number of AKP parliamentarians reportedly attacked Isik who fell on the stairs. Gulustan Kilic Kocyigit from the Kurdish-led Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) also jumped into the crowd and was hit in the face by a lawmaker.
Parliament had convened at the request of opposition parties that wanted to reinstall the membership of Can Atalay who campaigned from jail in the May 2023 parliamentary election on the TIP ticket and won a seat. However, the legislature stripped him of his membership in February.
The party appealed the decision at the Constitutional Court, which ruled in favour of Atalay.
Atalay was sentenced to 18 years in prison as a part of the Gezi Park trial in 2022. He was accused of attempting to overthrow the government during the 2013 protests against an urban development plan for Istanbul.
According to Sevda Karaca from the Labour Party (EMEP), the attack on Isik was initiated by the AKP bloc’s administrative manager Alpay Fehmi Ozalan, who she also accused of injuring DEM Party’s Kocyigit during the brawl.
Isik’s TIP party said in a post on X that “those who could not digest Ahmed Isik’s speech attacked him from behind,” adding that the party will “continue to say what we know to be right and to grow the fight for freedom, justice and equality in our country!”
AKP MP Eyyup Kadi Inan said Isik "caused a scene that does not befit out great parliament," and accused him of sympathizing with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
He also claimed that TIP and DEM Party parliamentarians "uttered insults and curses" during the session
DEM Party co-chairs Tulay Hatimogullari and Tuncer Bakirhan condemned the violence in a statement.
“The government, which could not stomach the opposition’s call for an extraordinary meeting of the parliament, has found the solution in attacks that amount to physical violence. The attacks on our female MPs by AKP male MPs are political banditry,” the co-chairs said.
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