Turkish lawmaker dies after collapsing during speech blasting Israel

ANKARA, Turkey — A Turkish opposition legislator died Thursday, days after he suffered a heart attack and collapsed in parliament just after delivering a speech critical of Israel and of the Turkish ruling party’s relationship with the country.

Hasan Bitmez, 53, a member of parliament from the Islamist Saadet Partisi, or Felicity Party, died at the Ankara City Hospital, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced.

Bitmez collapsed at the lectern of the Turkish Grand National Assembly on Tuesday after speaking for some 20 minutes.

Legislators in the hall assisted Bitmez before he was rushed to the hospital in “extremely serious and critical” condition.

During his speech, he was seen holding a sign that read: “Murderer Israel, Collaborator AKP,” in reference to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party.

Bitmez accused the AKP government of continuing to engage in trade with Israel even as it became one of its most vocal critics. AKP lawmakers heckled during his speech.

The legislator concluded his remarks by reading from a poem that ended with: “Even if you escape the torment of history, you will not be able to escape the wrath of Allah.”

He then said, “I salute you all,” immediately before collapsing to the ground at the podium, with his head hitting the floor.

A ceremony was held for Bitmez on the grounds of the parliament building Thursday. A Palestinian flag was attached to his coffin, which was draped in the Turkish flag.

His funeral was scheduled to be held in Istanbul on Friday.

The Felicity Party joined an opposition alliance that failed to topple Erdogan in a May presidential election.

Turkey had been in the midst of an effort to warm ties with Israel in the months before Hamas’s October 7 onslaught in southern Israel and the ensuing war, but Erdogan has since sharply backtracked and returned to the same vitriolic attacks that characterized many of the Islamist leader’s previous years in power.

Last week, Erdogan reiterated his belief that Hamas is not a terror group and said it must have a part in rebuilding Gaza after the war, despite the backing Israel has received from the West to eliminate the Palestinian terror group from the coastal enclave, which it has ruled since 2007.

In the October 7 onslaught, 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists burst through Israel’s border fence with Gaza and massacred 1,200 people in southern Israel, most of them civilians slaughtered in their homes and at a music festival, and seized 240 hostages, about 135 of whom are still held captive in Gaza.

Erdogan warned Israel last week that it would “pay a very heavy price” if it attempted to eliminate Hamas members in Turkey, several days after recordings were revealed of the head of the Shin Bet security agency saying Jerusalem is determined to kill group leaders “in every location” around the world, including “in Lebanon, in Turkey, in Qatar.”

Early in November, Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel for consultations over the war in Gaza, although it said that it was not breaking off diplomatic ties entirely.

The two countries only restored full diplomatic ties in August 2022 after years of deteriorating relations.