On Friday, a tense session of the Turkish parliament saw dozens of lawmakers engage in a brawl after a member from the ruling party physically attacked an opposition colleague for calling the government “terrorists.” The heated exchange occurred while legislators debated the fate of Serafettin Can Atalay, an opposition MP who is currently imprisoned for his alleged role in the 2013 Gezi Park riots.
The parliament had stripped Atalay of immunity and expelled him in January, but the Constitutional Court overruled that decision earlier this month. As tensions rose during the session, MP Ahmet Sik of the Turkish Workers’ Party (TIP) accused the ruling party members of being “the biggest terrorists” in the country. In response, AKP member Alpay Ozalan, a former footballer, approached Sik and punched him. This action sparked a melee involving dozens of lawmakers, with some throwing punches while others tried to separate the fighting parties.
The deputy speaker called for a 45-minute recess following the brawl, and staff were later seen cleaning blood stains from the parliament floor. Atalay is one of seven defendants convicted in 2022 for attempting to overthrow the government by organizing protests against replacing an Istanbul park with a shopping mall. The Erdogan government has claimed that these individuals are connected to the “terrorist network” led by exiled cleric Fetullah Gulen, who once supported the AKP before having a falling out with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The parliament’s supreme court of appeals upheld Atalay’s conviction in January, leading to efforts to strip him of immunity. However, the Constitutional Court ruled that his expulsion was “null and void” and violated the Turkish constitution. In recent years, Turkey’s parliament has voted in favor of lifting the immunity of opposition politicians – many of them ethnic Kurds – whom the government accuses of maintaining ties to Kurdish groups designated by Ankara as terrorists.