Dozens of lawmakers in Ankara brawled during a tempestuous session of the Turkish parliament on Friday, after a ruling party MP struck an opposition colleague who called the government “terrorists.”
Tempers flared as the legislature debated the fate of Serafettin Can Atalay, an opposition lawmaker currently in prison for his alleged role in the 2013 Gezi Park riots. The Hatay province representative was stripped of immunity and expelled in January, but the Constitutional Court overruled that decision earlier this month.
“It’s no surprise that you call Atalay a terrorist,” MP Ahmet Sik of the Turkish Workers’ Party (TIP) said during the session, according to AFP.
“All citizens should know that the biggest terrorists of this country are those seated on those benches,” Sik added, pointing to the legislators from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). “The truth always hurts. You have no shame or dignity,” he added.