ANKARA: A brawl broke out in Turkiye`s parliament on Friday after lawmakers discussed the fate of a jailed opposition figure controversially stripped of his parliamentary immunity earlier this year.

The lawmakers were meeting after the country`s constitutional court earlier this month struck down parliament`s decision to oust Can Atalay from his parliamentary seat.

Atalay won his seat last year after having campaigned from prison.

Ahmet Sik, a fellow member of the leftist Workers` Party of Turkiye (TIP), on Friday defended Atalay against the attacks on him by ruling party lawmakers.

`It`s no surprise that you call Atalay a terrorist,` he said. `All citizens should know that the biggest terrorists of this country are those seated on those benches,` he added, indicating the ruling majority.

That comment drew angry responses from ruling party lawmakers, prompting the chairman to call a break. Scuffles broke out after former footballer Alpay Ozalan, a lawmaker from Erdogan`s ruling AKP party, walked to the rostrum and shoved Sik to the ground.

Atalay was one of seven defendants sentenced in 2022 to 18 years in prison following a controversial trial that also saw the award-winning philanthropist Osman Kavala jailed for life. From prison, he campaigned to be elected to parliament in the May 2023 general election.

But that election win led to a legal standoff between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan`s supporters and opposition leaders that pushed Turkiye to the verge of a constitutional crisis last year.-AFP