Turkish lawmaker dies two days after collapsing whereas giving a speech

An opposition Turkish lawmaker died on Thursday, two days after struggling a coronary heart assault and collapsing in entrance of parliament as he completed a speech criticising the federal government’s coverage towards Israel.

Hasan Bitmez, 54, a member of parliament from the opposition Felicity (Saadet) Party, died in Ankara City Hospital, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca advised reporters in televised remarks.

Video had confirmed Bitmez falling to the ground after giving a speech within the General Assembly Hall in Ankara – prompting different politicians to run over to his support.

Rounding off a strongly worded speech, Bitmez had concluded: ‘We can maybe disguise from our conscience however not from historical past,’ stating that ‘Israel will undergo the wrath of Allah’, as reported by The Yeshiva World.

At that second, he stumbled and dropped to his knees earlier than mendacity flat on his again. The Saadet Party Kocaeli Deputy needed to be stretchered out of the corridor after receiving chest compressions ‘for a very long time’, Turkish media experiences. 

Turhan Çömez, a deputy from the Kemalist İYİ Party and a skilled physician, was reportedly the primary to assist his political rival.

Bitmez, who’s married and has a toddler, was taken to the Bilkent City Hospital in Ankara the place he underwent remedy within the intensive care unit whereas in a essential situation. 

Koca stated on Tuesday that an angiography revealed that the 2 principal veins in his coronary heart had been fully blocked.  

‘His coronary heart stopped beating, then he was resuscitated in parliament and transferred inside 20 minutes to hospital’ the place medical equipment stored him alive, Koca had stated on Tuesday.

But Koca revealed that Bitmez died at this time – two days after he suffered the center assault. 

A graduate of Cairo’s Al Azhar University, Bitmez was the chairman of the Centre for Islamic Union Research and had beforehand labored for Islamic non-governmental organisations, his parliament biography reveals. 

Shortly earlier than he collapsed on Tuesday, Bitmez had been criticising President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party (AKP) over Turkey’s ongoing commerce with Israel regardless of the battle in Gaza, and regardless of the federal government’s sharp rhetorical criticism of Israel’s navy bombardment.  

“You allow ships to go to Israel and you shamelessly call it trade… You are Israel’s accomplice,” Bitmez stated in his speech after inserting a banner on the rostrum studying: “Murderer Israel; collaborator AKP”.

“You have the blood of Palestinians on your hands, you are collaborators. You contribute to every bomb Israel drops on Gaza,” he advised lawmakers throughout debate over the overseas ministry’s 2024 finances.

After ending the speech, Bitmez all of a sudden fell backward on the ground, with different MPs dashing from their seats to assist. It has now been confirmed he died at this time after receiving remedy in hospital. 

Bitmez was elected because the twenty eighth Term Kocaeli Deputy within the elections of May 14, 2023.

He served for the opposition Felicity (Saadet) Party, which is an Islamist Turkish political social gathering based in 2001. 

After the Islamist Virtue Party was banned in July 2001 for violating secularist ideas of Turkey’s structure, reformists based the incumbent Justice and Development Party (AKP), a conservative social gathering run by president Recep Tayip Erdoğan, whereas hardliners fashioned Saadet.

While Turkey has a 99.8 per cent Muslim inhabitants, the nation is sure to plenty of secular and progressive ideas enshrined by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk within the early twentieth century.

Turkey and Israel normalised ties solely final yr, however relations have soured since Hamas’ October 7 strike into southern Israel.

Erdoğan – who solely narrowly received the May election – has appeared to widen his conservative base with backing from the nation’s non secular fringe.

Since October, he has taken a robust place towards Israel and each international locations have recalled their ambassadors whereas remaining open to commerce.

Prior to the battle, Erdoğan had expressed political help for Hamas’ political wing, seeing it as a viable authorities within the Gaza Strip. The battle has seen a shift in rhetoric.

At the tip of October, the president accused Israel’s allies of making a ‘campaign battle ambiance pitting Christians towards Muslims’.

‘The principal offender behind the bloodbath unfolding in Gaza is the West,’ he stated at a rally of a number of hundred thousand Palestinian supporters in Istanbul on October 28. 

Turkey has additionally pledged humanitarian support to Gaza, with harrowing accounts of meals, water, gas and medical provide shortages popping out of the beleaguered enclave.

‘A complete of 51 containers of medical provides, mills and 20 ambulances, with crucial permissions, had been loaded onto a ship from Izmir’s Alsancak port and despatched to Egypt,’ Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca stated on November 10.

‘As a part of the help, a totally geared up heavy-climate sort discipline hospital with working rooms and intensive-care models and inflatable sort discipline hospitals had been despatched,’ he stated. 

More than 18,000 Palestinians have been killed within the battle since October, in accordance with the Palestinian Health Ministry. 

Some 40 per cent of the two.3million inhabitants are kids, and greater than half the entire have already been displaced by Israeli forces warning of invasion.

The IDF instructed Gazans residing within the north to maneuver on or threat being caught in a navy escalation as early as October 13 however many have been unable to maneuver as a result of illness, age or harm, unwilling to depart their houses or caught in unintended bombings or areas designated protected zones.

As Israel sweeps south to root out Hamas leaders believed to be across the metropolis of Khan Yunis, questions come up round the place they will nonetheless flee to.

Nearly 1,200 Israelis have been killed within the battle thus far, most of them when armed members of Hamas ambushed southern Israel in a shock assault on October 7. 

Around 240 hostages had been additionally taken again into Gaza, a lot of whom have since been exchanged in prisoner swaps with Israel mediated by Qatar.