The Turkish Parliament has once again become a boxing ring this Tuesday, with a monumental brawl between the government party and the second opposition party. As a result, an opposition deputy is in critical condition after suffering an arrhythmia, hours after being involved in a brawl in front of the rostrum, during which he was punched.
The attacking deputy is Zafer Isik, from the ruling AKP, while the attacker, Hüseyin Örs, 58, is a member of the Good Party (Iyi, in Turkish). The latter has a pacemaker and, according to what he has learned, his life is not in danger due to the moderately violent impact itself, but rather due to the tachycardia derived from the stress of the moment.
Örs, deputy for Trabzon, would have had to undergo cardiac defibrillation and is hospitalized in Ankara, according to his co-religionist Aylin Cesur, who has described his condition as "critical". Cesur himself, a trained doctor, provided first aid to the victim inside the Chamber.
Even so, the aggressor deputy would have stated that he does not intend to apologize for his punch to the hospitalized deputy, alleging that this type of incident "are common in the Chamber."
The reason for the fight is not clear, although at the time of the attack one of the two parties involved had the use of the floor in the debate on the General Budgets.
"It is a shameful day for the Turkish Parliament," exclaimed Good Party spokesman Kursat Zorlu. The Good Party is a recent split from the MHP, an ultranationalist party not exactly alien to violence. His youth, the Gray Wolves, were behind a multitude of political assassinations during the Cold War. Today the MHP supports the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan while the Good Party is led by the former Minister of the Interior, Meral Aksener.
