Video: Bloody fistfight breaks out between MPs in Turkey over imprisoned MP
There was a disorder in the Turkish Parliament on Friday after parliamentary proceedings showed that some of them met to consider the situation of an opposition politician who was arrested and controversially lost his parliamentary immunity earlier this year.
This was in response to a ruling by the country’s constitutional court earlier this month overturning parliament’s decision to strip Can Atalay of his seat.
Atalay, a human rights campaigner and lawyer, lost his seat due to an acrimonious session in January which other left-wing MPs had sought to adjourn.
🎥🇹🇷🤜VIDEO:- Fists fly in #Turkishparliament, Dozens of lawmakers in #Ankara brawled during a tempestuous session of the parliament after a ruling party MP struck an opposition colleague who called the government “terrorists.”#Turkey #Fistfighting #İstanbul #Kursk #Russia pic.twitter.com/pVPSe5GBPP
— iMAQ (@manzooraq) August 16, 2024
Thus, he became one of seven convicts sentenced in 2022 for 18 years following the highly controversial case that led to life imprisonment for renowned philanthropist Osman Kavala. The general elections were held last May where Atalay ran at age 48 for a parliamentary seat representing Hatay, a region devastated by an earthquake. In addition, he represents the communist Workers’ Party of Turkey with three seats in the Legislature Following last year’s election though there arose legal stalemate between opposition leaders and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan loyalists that brought Turkey almost into constitutional crisis.
When Parliament decided on January 12th , 2023 , however , it followed through as per Supreme Court of Appeals confirming Atalay’s conviction and opening up groundwork for withdrawing his legislative immunity Nevertheless, on August 1st this year, Constitutional Court released its decision on this matter which is supposed to verify whether decisions are consistent with fundamental law principles or not . It has ruled invalid the parliamentary removal of Atalay “The TIP MP Ahmet Sik rose against his fellow parliamentarians attacking him…” Finally she pointed out affirmatively “All these people should know that those people you see sitting right there are terrorists number one in this country.”
Therefore such statement drew vehement replies from Elmalioglu but still, she dismissed all her arguments so far made The governing party’s leader, however, called for a break in the session immediately afterwards when he received irate responses to such comments. A legislator from Erdogan’s AKP governing party and a former footballer, Alpay Ozalan, made his way to the dais where Sik was pushed and subsequently caused conflicts between them as reported by an AFP correspondent at the Parliament. She got hurt when one opposition MP tried to calm tempers down. Bloodstains were washed from parliamentary floors after the fight was captured on video footage uploaded online. Yet several Kurdish opposition lawmakers in Turkey who are referred to by government as “terrorists” have previously voted for their own immunity removals.
