A shocking video captures the shocking moment a mass brawl broke out between politicians from opposing parties in Turkey’s parliament.
MPs had gathered to discuss reinstating a major opposition figure, who won a seat in the parliament in the May 2023 elections, despite being in prison.
Can Atalay campaigned on the ticket of the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TIP) from his prison cell.
He is currently serving an 18-year sentence after being found guilty of attempting to overthrow the government during the 2013 protests against an urban development plan for Istanbul.
Atalay was stripped of his parliamentary seat by the legislature earlier back in February of this year.
Tempers flared after opposition members accused their counterparts from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of attacking an MP, after he had called them “terrorists.”
The TIP’s Ahmed Isik said: “You are shameless. You have zero shame and dignity.
“Let everyone know that the greatest terror organisation in this country… are those who are sitting here and the greatest terrorists are these.”
The speech provoked a furious reaction from AKP MPs who attacked Isik, knocking him to the ground.
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.
At which point all bedlam broke out, as MPs rushed to separate their fighting colleagues, who were furiously exchanging punches.
Female MPs were also caught up in the melee, as they tried to bring calm and order back to proceedings.
The TIP party later said in a post on X that “those who could not digest Ahmed Isik’s speech attacked him from behind.”
They added 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 our great parliament,” and accused him of sympathising with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
He also claimed that TIP and DEM Party parliamentarians “uttered insults and curses” during the session.
