Hasan Bitmez collapses on the floor of Turkey's Parliament
(From X with the permission of Maor Lesser )
The deputy head of Turkey's Islamist Saadet (Felicity) Party collapsed at the podium of the Turkish Parliament on Tuesday while he was criticizing the government's policy on Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.
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Hasan Bitmez accused the government of having "endless love for Israel, and said that "the government has contributed to every bomb dropped by Israel."
He also accused Israel of "crimes against humanity" and "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians.
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Deputy head of Turkey's Islamist Saadet (Felicity) Party Hasan Bitmez collapsed at the podium of the Turkish Parliament while he was criticizing the government's policy on Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.
(Adem Altan/AFP)
"Even if history remains silent, the truth will not remain silent. They think that if they get rid of us, there will be no problem. However, if you get rid of us, you will not be able to escape the torment of conscience. Even if you escape the torment of history, you will not be able to escape the wrath of God," Bitmez said, quoting from a poem by Turkish writer Sezai Karakoç, immediately before collapsing while addressing the Parliament.
Bitmez, 53, hit his head on the marble floor of the General Assembly hall when he passed out.
Bitmez's heart reportedly stopped in the Parliament, but was restarted with medical intrervention. The Turkish lawmaker, who is diabetic, later received two stents in arteries in his heart after an angiography at a local hospital, the BBC in Turkish reported.
Lawmakers from the Justice and Development (AK) Party, a self-described conservative-democratic party which is led by Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, blamed Bitmez's health problem on "God's wrath," according to minutes of the Parliament session reported by the BBC.
Turkey condemned Israeli civilian deaths caused by Hamas's October 7 terror attack in southern Israel, in which 1,400 Israeli infants, children and civilians were murdered. But days later Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Hamas Palestinian "freedom fighters". He also criticized some Western nations for their unconditional support of Israel.
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Deputy head of Turkey's Islamist Saadet (Felicity) Party Hasan Bitmez speaks on the floor of the Turkish Parliament
(Adem Altan/AFP)
Erdogan has accused Israel of committing "war crimes" in the Gaza Strip since the start of its war against Hamas.
"Israel has been openly committing war crimes for 22 days, but the Western leaders cannot even call on Israel for a cease-fire, let alone react to it," Erdogan told a massive crowd of hundreds of thousands of pro-Palestinian supporters on October 28.
His address was seen as an attempt to strengthen his political base, which has Islamist leanings, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Turkey's secular republic.
"We will tell the whole world that Israel is a war criminal. We are making preparations for this. We will declare Israel a war criminal," he said. In his speech, Erdogan also repeated that Hamas was not a terrorist organization, describing Israel as an occupier.
Over the weekend, Erdogan called the United Nations Security Council the "Israel protection and defense council,” after the United States vetoed a cease-fire resolution which failed to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel.
Prior to the Gaza war, ties between Israel and Turkey had been warming, with President Isaac Herzog visiting Turkey to meet with Erdogan in March 2022and the announcement in August of that year that Israel and Turkey would restore full diplomatic ties and return ambassadors to each other's country.