ANKARA: Dozens of lawmakers were involved in a fistfight in Turkey's parliament on Friday as they argued over a jailed opposition lawmaker who had his parliamentary immunity stripped this year.
The 30-minute commotion, which left at least two lawmakers injured, forced the hearing to be suspended.
Lawmakers eventually returned for a vote that rejected an opposition proposal to restore the parliamentary mandate of lawyer and human rights activist Can Atalay.
Atalay won his seat in an election last year after campaigning from his prison cell.
Parliamentary unrest erupted after Alpay Ozalan, a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), attacked Ahmet Sik, a member of the leftist Workers' Party of Turkey (TIP), who had condemned the government's treatment of Atalay.
“It's not surprising that you call Atalay a terrorist,” he said.
“All citizens should know that the biggest terrorists in this country are those sitting on those benches,” he added, pointing to the ruling majority.
Ozalan, a former footballer, walked into the stands and pushed Sik to the ground, an AFP journalist told parliament.
While on the ground, Sik was punched several times by AKP lawmakers.
Dozens of lawmakers joined the fight.
Images posted online showed the scuffle and then staff cleaning blood stains from the floor of parliament.
A deputy from the Republican People's Party (CHP) and one from the People's Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) suffered head injuries.
Ozgur Ozel, head of the main opposition party, CHP, denounced the violence.
“I am ashamed to have witnessed this situation,” he added.
The Speaker of Parliament said that the two MPs who started the fight would be punished.
Atalay was stripped of his seat following a badly-tempered parliamentary session in January, despite efforts by his fellow left-wing MPs to halt proceedings.
He is one of seven defendants sentenced in 2022 to 18 years in prison following a controversial trial that also saw award-winning philanthropist Osman Kavala jailed for life.
From prison, Atalay, 48, campaigned for a seat in parliament in earthquake-ravaged Hatay province in elections due in May 2023.
He was elected as a member of the leftist TIP party, which has three seats in Parliament.
The victory sparked a legal standoff between supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and opposition leaders that brought Turkey to the brink of a constitutional crisis last year.
Parliament's decision in January to expel Atalay came after a ruling by the supreme appeals court upheld his conviction, paving the way for the move to strip him of his parliamentary immunity.
But on August 1, the constitutional court – which reviews whether judges' decisions comply with Turkey's basic law – said Atalay's dismissal as a member of parliament was “null and void.”
Lawmakers from the AKP and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) joined forces to defeat the opposition motion on Friday.
The Turkish parliament has previously voted to lift the immunity from prosecution of opposition politicians – many of them Kurdish – whom the government considers “terrorists”.
