A fight involving shoving and punching broke out on Thursday between members of parliament from Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Republican People’s Party (CHP) – the main Turkish opposition party – during a routine session of a Turkish parliamentary committee in Ankara.
Turkish media reported that the altercation occurred in the final hours of the parliamentary committee meeting on industry, trade, energy, natural resources, information and technology, which was scheduled to debate a draft law proposed by the AKP on mining projects on olive groves.
Apparently, tensions arose from the outset due to a lack of space in the room designated for the meeting, which meant that several MPs were left without seats and representatives of associations affected by the law were unable to enter the room. Opposition MPs criticised the situation and demanded that the meeting be moved to another location, a request that was rejected by the committee chairman, former minister Mustafa Varank.
The atmosphere became heated when members of the CHP wanted to let in representatives of environmental associations and olive producers, who had been prevented from entering, but were met with firm opposition from parliamentary security officials, who insisted that no one not on the list could enter the room.
Several CHP MPs protested by banging on the table, while the argument between the committee chairman, Mustafa Varank, and the CHP MP for Bursa, Orhan Sarıbal, escalated further when the AKP MP for Eskişehir, Nebi Hatipoğlu, shoved the latter, and they had to be separated by the rest of those present. The session was finally suspended temporarily after this new fight, while representatives of producers’ and farmers’ associations who were unable to enter the committee organised a sit-in protest at the Turkish parliament.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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