Turkish lawmaker collapses in parliament ‘moments after saying Israel would suffer the wrath of Allah’

• Islamist party politician said Israel would ‘suffer the wrath of Allah’ in speech
• Bitmez was treated by a political rival before being taken to hospital in Ankara 

This is the shocking moment a Turkish lawmaker collapsed suddenly in parliament after reportedly having a heart attack following an impassioned rant in which he  said Israel would ‘suffer the wrath of Allah’.

Video showed the moment Hasan Bitmez, 53, fell on the floor after giving a speech in the General Assembly Hall in Ankara – prompting other politicians to run over to his aid.

Rounding off a strongly worded speech, Bitmez had concluded, ‘We can perhaps hide from our conscience but not from history,’ stating that ‘Israel will suffer the wrath of Allah’, as reported by The Yeshiva World.

In that moment, he stumbled and dropped to his knees before lying flat on his back. The Saadet Party Kocaeli Deputy had to be stretchered out of the hall after receiving chest compressions ‘for a long time’, Turkish media reports. 

Turhan Çömez, a deputy from the Kemalist İYİ Party and a trained doctor, was reportedly the first to help his political rival.

The Turkish lawmaker gave a speech in the Grand Assembly Hall before collapsing

A politician runs over after Bitmez was seen falling onto the ground at the assembly hall

He was taken to hospital and moved to an ICU in critical condition, the health minister said

Bitmez was taken to the Bilkent City Hospital in Ankara where he is listed as in ‘critical condition’. Saadet chairman Temel Karamollaoğlu told reporters ‘Bitmez’s health was still at risk’ and asked for ‘prayers for his recovery’. 

READ MORE: Heartbroken father cradles his toddler son as the bodies of his twin girls lie before him after they were killed in Israeli strike – as UN votes on ceasefire resolution 

Dr Fahrettin Koca, health minister of Turkey, said in a statement today that Bitmez was ‘disturbed’ during his speech at the General Assembly, adding that he was currently undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit of the Ankara hospital.

Bitmez, who is married and has a child, was elected as the 28th Term Kocaeli Deputy in the elections of May 14, 2023.

Saadet is an Islamist Turkish political party founded in 2001. 

After the Islamist Virtue Party was banned in July 2001 for violating secularist principles of Turkey’s constitution, reformists founded the incumbent Justice and Development Party (AKP), a conservative party run by president Recep Tayip Erdoğan, while hardliners formed Saadet.

While Turkey has a 99.8 per cent Muslim population, the country is bound to a number of secular and progressive principles enshrined by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in the early 20th century.

Turkey and Israel normalised ties only last year, but relations have soured since Hamas’ October 7 strike into southern Israel.

Erdoğan – who only narrowly won the May election – has looked to widen his conservative base with backing from the country’s religious fringe.

Since October, he has taken a strong position against Israel and both countries have recalled their ambassadors while remaining open to trade.

Prior to the war, Erdoğan had expressed political support for Hamas’ political wing, seeing it as a viable government in the Gaza Strip. The war has seen a shift in rhetoric.

At the end of October, the president accused Israel’s allies of creating a ‘crusade war atmosphere pitting Christians against Muslims’.

‘The main culprit behind the massacre unfolding in Gaza is the West,’ he said at a rally of several hundred thousand Palestinian supporters in Istanbul on October 28. 

Turkey has also pledged humanitarian aid to Gaza, with harrowing accounts of food, water, fuel and medical supply shortages coming out of the beleaguered enclave.

‘A total of 51 containers of medical supplies, generators and 20 ambulances, with necessary permissions, were loaded onto a ship from Izmir’s Alsancak port and sent to Egypt,’ Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on November 10.

‘As part of the aid, a fully equipped heavy-climate type field hospital with operating rooms and intensive-care units and inflatable type field hospitals were sent,’ he said. 

More than 18,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict since October, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. 

Some 40 per cent of the 2.3million population are children, and more than half the total have already been displaced by Israeli forces warning of invasion.

The IDF instructed Gazans living in the north to move on or risk being caught in a military escalation as early as October 13 but many have been unable to move due to sickness, age or injury, unwilling to leave their homes or caught in accidental bombings or areas designated safe zones.

Concern as the Saadet party official, 53, reportedly had a heart attack in the hall

President Erdoğan wears a scarf depicting the Palestinian and Turkish flags during a rally organised by the AKP Party in solidarity with civilians in Gaza, in Istanbul, October 28

LEFT: A man holds a child, both injured in an Israeli bombardment, as they receive treatment at a trauma ward in Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on October 24. RIGHT: A woman embraces the body of a Palestinian child killed in Israeli strikes, at a hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 17

Smoke billowing during Israeli bombardment on northern Gaza, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas, on December 11, 2023

As Israel sweeps south to root out Hamas leaders believed to be around the city of Khan Yunis, questions arise around where they can still flee to.

Nearly 1,200 Israelis have been killed in the conflict so far, most of them when armed members of Hamas ambushed southern Israel in a surprise attack on October 7. 

Around 240 hostages were also taken back into Gaza, many of whom have since been exchanged in prisoner swaps with Israel mediated by Qatar.

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