Minister sets unofficial record with rapid-fire speech delivery

ANKARA

Youth and Sports Minister Osman Aşkın Bak has garnered attention for a remarkable feat, succinctly delivering his speech of 4,700 words in an astonishingly brief duration of just 35 minutes.

His speech during the budget talks covered nine pages in the parliamentary records, setting an unofficial record.

With the opposition parties both criticizing and appreciating Bak's rapid-fire delivery, the lawmakers from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) responded with applause and laughter to the minister’s speech.

"I congratulate the minister on his performance. It would have been better if he had given us a heads-up so that we could have prepared for a potential entry into the Guinness World Records,” İYİ Party Deputy Group Deputy Chairman Müsavat Dervişoğlu remarked.

Bak's speech, with an average rate of 134 words per minute, approached the upper limits of the acceptable range, as per the Broadcasting and Use of Turkish guide prepared by the national channel TRT.

Another record was broken in last year's budget discussions, as AKP Isparta Deputy Sürreyya Sadi Bilgiç led the session for nine hours and 44 minutes without a break.

Bilgiç broke the record of Levent Gök, who managed a session in the parliament for eight hours and 13 minutes continuously on Dec. 15, 2019.