Turkish Parliament does not deserve 'obscene' language: Speaker

ANKARA

"I hope everybody will take a lesson from what happened and such actions will happen no longer,” Cemil Çiçek said. CİHAN Photo

Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek has condemned the use of obscene language by lawmakers in the General Assembly, saying that the Turkish Parliament “does not deserve” such language.

“These are not acceptable or appropriate scenes. Those are the actions of a few of our colleagues, but the whole of Parliament is held responsible for such acts, manners and statements. We don’t deserve it, Parliament does not deserve it. I hope everybody will take a lesson from what happened and such actions will happen no longer,” Çiçek told reporters on Dec. 12 at a ceremony in Parliament.

He was commenting after a budget debate at Parliament descended into a bad-tempered slanging match between ruling and opposition party deputies on Dec. 11.

Verbal exchanges between ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy Zeyid Aslan and main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Muharrem İnce were prevented from turning into a physical fight by their fellow colleagues during the meeting, which was supposed to be focusing on resuming 10-day long debates on the 2014 Central Governance Budget Law that kicked off on Dec. 10. Amid a heated row, both Aslan and İnce swore at each other using the f-word.

Çiçek said it was unacceptable that Parliament’s reputation had been besmirched due to the faults of a few lawmakers.

“This is a problem caused by a few people. Unfortunately, we have not been able to lead them to the right path,” he said.

Aslan also swore at and threatened CHP deputy Kamer Genç during a parliamentary session back in April, and he later made further headlines after lashing out with sexist comments at female reporters at Parliament. After being sent to the disciplinary committee, he eventually received only a warning, the lowest possible penalty.