Turkey’s parliament descended into chaos on Friday when lawmakers began throwing punches during a debate around a jailed member’s future.
Both sides were debating at the Grand National Assembly whether to restore the parliamentary mandate of lawyer and rights activist Can Atalay who won a seat last year despite being in prison.
A brawl erupted after Alpay Ozalan, a member for the ruling Justice and Development party, was insulted by Ahmet Sik, a member of the leftist Workers’ party of Turkey.
The pair had been trading barbs about the treatment of Mr Atalay, which led to Mr Sik referring to the ruling party as “terrorists”.
Mr Ozalan, a former international footballer who played 71 games for Aston Villa, shoved Mr Sik to the ground - where he took punches from several Justice and Development members.
A fully fledged brawl then escalated, with members from all sides of the chamber rushing to join in and it took half an hour to calm down with punches being thrown by multiple people.
Several people suffered injuries.
The session was postponed and reconvened later with the government winning a vote, which upheld the suspension of Mr Atalay.
Ozgur Ozel, head of the main opposition CHP, said: “I am ashamed to have witnesses this situation.”
Mr Atalay is one of three Workers’ party MPs and was previously denied entry to parliament in January.
The constitutional fall out around the situation has previously caused problems in Turkey and led to action from president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Mr Ozalan was previously involved in a brawl during his football career in a 2006 World Cup play off match against Switzerland that led to the end of his international tenure.
He also famously became a national villain in 2003 when he taunted then England captain David Beckham after he skied a penalty in a match against Turkey.
