Brawl in Turkey's Parliament: Minister Soylu walks up to main opposition CHP’s Özel

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Following the budget talks at the Parliamentary Commission on Planning and Budgetary, the Members of the Parliament have started discussing the 2022 budget at the General Assembly of the Parliament.

Yesterday, on December 8, 2021, the budgets of the Ministry of Industry and Technology and the Interior Ministry were debated.

The debates at the General Assembly during the talks on the Interior Ministry's 2022 budget turned into a fight.

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Parliamentary Group Deputy Char Özgür Özel took the floor and made a statement in response to the remarks of Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.

Criticizing the Minister for not answering the questions addressed to him, CHP's Özgür Özel briefly stated the following:

He decided to speak like that in order to not explain his paving the way for the Thodex fraud faced by over 200 thousand people in Turkey and his failure to fulfil his duty, in order to not answer the question about his giving a security guard to a crime group leader, in order to not answer the question regarding the raid on a [police] station, in order to not respond to his gross negligence about human smuggling, in order to not respond to the issue of Aliye Uzun... Then, in a fit of hysterics, he says, 'I won't let the state be slandered.' There is no slander to the state, but there are those who ask him questions.

Soylu walked up to Özel

After Özel said, "Don't be a tool of the one who said, 'Will you give a standing ovation to the heroic soldiers' and then acted like he had received a standing ovation", the MPs of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Minister Soylu reacted against these remarks.

AKP MP Alpay Özalan, alongside Minister Süleyman Soylu, who left the lodge, walked up to CHP Group Deputy Chair Özgür Özel. The CHP and AKP MPs, trying to intervene in, had a fist-fight. In the meanwhile, Süleyman Soylu was seen to be walking up to Özgür Özel.

'What is coming is coming'

After the recess, Soylu took the floor and said: "I won't say much; No need for worries. I will take Özgür Özel, who insulted my person, to the court. God willing, the judge will find criminal liability and give him a sentence. Don't worry. Let me tell you something: What is coming is coming."

In response to Soylu, Özel said:

"We have never filed lawsuits against one another. What happened today that he has decided to file a lawsuit? I will also file a lawsuit against him over his all not time-barred insults. He asks 'whether I have criminal liability or not.' Mr. Minister apparently cannot stay away from some chemicals that he cannot manage to keep our children away from." (TP/SD)

* Sources: Evrensel, T24, BBC Türkçe