RULING PARTY AND opposition Turkish politicians exchanged punches and hurled water bottles at each other today, as a mass brawl erupted in parliament over changes to the constitution.
It was the third time in just six days that violence has broken out among the country’s MPs.
The Turkish parliament’s constitutional committee was meeting to discuss a government-backed proposal to strip MPs of their parliamentary immunity, after last week’s session also broke up in violence.
Television footage shows lawmakers from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) fighting in the crammed committee room after a heated verbal confrontation.
Several MPs can be seen jumping onto tables and then dive-bombing the crowd of opposing lawmakers on the other side.
Others vaulted onto tables to get a better crack at kicking their opponents from above while some MPs sought to calm the tensions.
Water bottles and other objects were hurled across the room in some of the worst fighting ever seen in the Turkish parliament, and a new sign of the severe political tensions in the country.
Punches were thrown during the constitutional committee’s session last Wednesday, and progressed into a full-blown brawl the following day, as shown in this footage.
Today’s fracas prompted the president of the committee to delay the session once again, until later on Monday. The head of the HDP’s faction in parliament, Idris Baluken, dislocated his shoulder in the fighting, reports said.
The constitutional committee was due to discuss the AKP-backed plan to strip MPs of their parliamentary immunity.
The government has stepped up efforts to have pro-Kurdish lawmakers prosecuted over their alleged links with militants amid mounting tension in the Kurdish-majority south-east.
Contains reporting by AFP.
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