Ruling
party and opposition Turkish MPs on Monday exchanged punches and hurled water
bottles at each other as a new mass brawl erupted in parliament over changes to
the constitution, television broadcasts showed.
Parliament's
constitutional committee was meeting to discuss a government-backed proposal to
strip MPs of their immunity, after last week's session also broke up in
violence.
Television
footage showed members of 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.
The head
of the HDP's faction in parliament, Idris Baluken, dislocated his shoulder in
the fighting, reports said.
Several
MPs were seen jumping onto tables and then dive-bombing the crowd of opposing
politicians 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, in a new sign of the severe
political tensions in the country.
The constitutional
committee was due to discuss the AKP-backed plan to strip MPs of their
parliamentary immunity.
It comes
as the government has stepped up efforts to have pro-Kurdish parliamentarians
prosecuted over their alleged links with militants amid mounting tension in the
Kurdish-majority southeast.
Government
spokesman Numan Kurtulmus deplored the scenes of fighting in the national
legislature.
"No
one should hope to push the government into backing out [of its plans] with
this kind of behaviour," he warned, adding that "whatever happens,
the demand to lift the immunity (of MPs)... will be presented to
parliament."
Ruling
party and opposition Turkish MPs on Monday exchanged punches and hurled
water bottles at each other as a new mass brawl erupted in parliament
over changes to the constitution, television broadcasts showed.
Parliament's constitutional committee was meeting to discuss a government-backed proposal to strip MPs of their immunity, after last week's session also broke up in violence.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/kurdish-mp-dislocates-shoulder-turkish-parliament-punch-166937366#sthash.8PZxwndY.dpuf
Parliament's constitutional committee was meeting to discuss a government-backed proposal to strip MPs of their immunity, after last week's session also broke up in violence.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/kurdish-mp-dislocates-shoulder-turkish-parliament-punch-166937366#sthash.8PZxwndY.dpuf
Ruling
party and opposition Turkish MPs on Monday exchanged punches and hurled
water bottles at each other as a new mass brawl erupted in parliament
over changes to the constitution, television broadcasts showed.
Parliament's constitutional committee was meeting to discuss a government-backed proposal to strip MPs of their immunity, after last week's session also broke up in violence.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/kurdish-mp-dislocates-shoulder-turkish-parliament-punch-166937366#sthash.8PZxwndY.dpuf
Parliament's constitutional committee was meeting to discuss a government-backed proposal to strip MPs of their immunity, after last week's session also broke up in violence.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/kurdish-mp-dislocates-shoulder-turkish-parliament-punch-166937366#sthash.8PZxwndY.dpuf
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