Fisticuffs in Turkish parliament

ANKARA: A brawl broke out in Turkiye’s parliament on Friday after lawmakers discussed the fate of a jailed opposition figure controversially stri­pped of his parliamentary immunity earlier this year.
The lawmakers were meeting after the country’s constitutional court earlier this month struck down parliament’s decision to oust Can Atalay from his parliamentary seat.
Atalay won his seat last year after having campaigned from prison. Ahmet Sik, a fellow member of the leftist Workers’ Party of Turkiye (TIP), on Friday defended Atalay against the attacks on him by ruling party lawmakers.

“It’s no surprise that you call Atalay a terrorist,” he said. “All citizens should know that the biggest terrorists of this country are those seated on those benches,” he added, indicating the ruling majority.
That comment drew angry responses from ruling party lawmakers, prompting the chairman to call a break. Scuffles broke out after former footballer Alpay Ozalan, a lawmaker from Erdogan’s ruling AKP party, walked to the rostrum and shoved Sik to the ground.
Atalay was one of seven defendants sentenced in 2022 to 18 years in prison following a controversial trial that also saw the award-winning philanthropist Osman Kavala jailed for life. From prison, he campaigned to be elected to parliament in the May 2023 general election.
But that election win led to a legal standoff between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s supporters and opposition leaders that pushed Turkiye to the verge of a constitutional crisis last year.
Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2024