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Brawl in Turkish Parliament Over Ousted MP

A Turkish flag with the Bosphorus Bridge in the background, flies on a passenger ferry in Istanbul, Turkey September 30, 2020. (Reuters)
A Turkish flag with the Bosphorus Bridge in the background, flies on a passenger ferry in Istanbul, Turkey September 30, 2020. (Reuters)
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Brawl in Turkish Parliament Over Ousted MP

A Turkish flag with the Bosphorus Bridge in the background, flies on a passenger ferry in Istanbul, Turkey September 30, 2020. (Reuters)
A Turkish flag with the Bosphorus Bridge in the background, flies on a passenger ferry in Istanbul, Turkey September 30, 2020. (Reuters)

A brawl broke out in Türkiye's parliament Friday after lawmakers discussed the fate of a jailed opposition figure controversially stripped of his parliamentary immunity earlier this year.

The lawmakers were meeting after the country's constitutional court earlier this month struck down parliament's decision to oust Can Atalay from his parliamentary seat.

Lawyer and rights Atalay won his seat last year after having campaigned from his prison cell.

Ahmet Sik, a fellow member of the leftist Workers' Party of Türkiye (TIP), on Friday defended Atalay against the attacks on him by ruling party lawmakers, AFP reported.

"It's no surprise that you call Atalay a terrorist," he said.

"All citizens should know that the biggest terrorists of this country are those seated on those benches," he added, indicating the ruling majority.

That comment drew angry responses from ruling party lawmakers, prompting the chairman to call a break.

Scuffles broke out after former footballer Alpay Ozalan, a lawmaker from Erdogan's ruling AKP party, walked to the rostrum and shoved Sik to the ground, said an AFP journalist in parliament.

Sik was then punched on the ground several times by ruling party lawmakers.

At least two opposition MPs were injured during the fistfight.

Footage posted online showed the brawl and then staff cleaning blood stains from the parliament floor afterwards.

Ozgur Ozel, head of the main opposition CHP party, denounced the violence.

"I am ashamed to have witnessed this situation," he added.

Atalay was deprived of his seat following an ill-tempered parliamentary session in January, despite efforts by fellow leftist deputies to halt the proceedings.

He is one of seven defendants sentenced in 2022 to 18 years in prison following a controversial trial that also saw the award-winning philanthropist Osman Kavala jailed for life.

From prison, 48-year-old Atalay campaigned to be elected to parliament, running for the earthquake-ravaged Hatay province in the May 2023 general election.

He was elected as a member for the leftist TIP, which has three seats in the parliament.

But that election win led to a legal standoff between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's supporters and opposition leaders that pushed Türkiye to the verge of a constitutional crisis last year.

Parliament's decision in January to oust Atalay came after a ruling by the supreme court of appeals that upheld his conviction, clearing the way for the move to strip him of his parliamentary immunity.

But on August 1, the constitutional court -- a body in charge of reviewing whether judges' rulings comply with Türkiye's basic law -- published its ruling on the case.

Atalay's removal as a member of parliament was "null and void", it said.

Türkiye's parliament has previously voted to lift immunity from prosecution of opposition politicians -- many of them Kurds -- who the government views as "terrorists".

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World

North Korea Says Japan's Nuclear Ambitions Must Be Stopped 'at Any Cost'

This picture taken on December 12, 2025 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on December 13 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (at podium) attending a welcoming ceremony for the Korean People's Army's 528th Regiment of Engineers, which returned from an overseas deployment in Russia's Kursk region during Moscow's war with Ukraine, in front of the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang. (KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
This picture taken on December 12, 2025 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on December 13 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (at podium) attending a welcoming ceremony for the Korean People's Army's 528th Regiment of Engineers, which returned from an overseas deployment in Russia's Kursk region during Moscow's war with Ukraine, in front of the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang. (KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
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North Korea Says Japan's Nuclear Ambitions Must Be Stopped 'at Any Cost'

This picture taken on December 12, 2025 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on December 13 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (at podium) attending a welcoming ceremony for the Korean People's Army's 528th Regiment of Engineers, which returned from an overseas deployment in Russia's Kursk region during Moscow's war with Ukraine, in front of the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang. (KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
This picture taken on December 12, 2025 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on December 13 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (at podium) attending a welcoming ceremony for the Korean People's Army's 528th Regiment of Engineers, which returned from an overseas deployment in Russia's Kursk region during Moscow's war with Ukraine, in front of the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang. (KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)

North Korea said on Sunday that Japan's nuclear ambitions "must be prevented at any cost", after a Tokyo official reportedly suggested the country should possess atomic weapons.

Pyongyang's reaction came after the unnamed official in the prime minister's office was quoted by Kyodo News on Thursday as saying: "I think we should possess nuclear weapons."

The official was reported to have been involved in devising Japan's security policy.

The Kyodo report also quoted the source as saying: "In the end, we can only rely on ourselves" when explaining the necessity.

Pyongyang said the remarks showed Tokyo was "openly revealing their ambition to possess nuclear weapons, going beyond the red line".

"Japan's attempt to go nuclear must be prevented at any cost as it will bring mankind a great disaster," the director of the Institute for Japan Studies under the North's foreign ministry said in a statement carried by official Korean Central News Agency on Sunday.

"This is not a misstatement or a reckless assertion, but clearly reflects Japan's long-cherished ambition for nuclear weaponization," said the North Korean official, who was not named.

The official added that if Japan acquired nuclear weapons, "Asian countries will suffer a horrible nuclear disaster and mankind will face a great disaster".

The statement did not address Pyongyang's own nuclear program, which includes an atomic test first carried out in 2006 in violation of UN resolutions.

North Korea is believed to possess dozens of nuclear warheads and has repeatedly vowed to keep them despite a raft of international sanctions, saying it needs them to deter perceived military threats from the United States and its allies.

In an address to the United Nations in September, Pyongyang's vice foreign minister Kim Son Gyong said his country would never surrender its nuclear weapons.

"We will never give up nuclear power which is our state law, national policy and sovereign power as well as the right to existence. Under any circumstances, we will never walk away from this position," he said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has also said he is open to talks with Washington, provided Pyongyang is allowed to keep its nuclear arsenal.

World

Putin Ready to Talk to France’s Macron on Ukraine, Says Spokesman

French President Emmanuel Macron holds a press conference during a European Union leaders' summit, in Brussels, Belgium December 19, 2025. (Reuters)
French President Emmanuel Macron holds a press conference during a European Union leaders' summit, in Brussels, Belgium December 19, 2025. (Reuters)
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Putin Ready to Talk to France’s Macron on Ukraine, Says Spokesman

French President Emmanuel Macron holds a press conference during a European Union leaders' summit, in Brussels, Belgium December 19, 2025. (Reuters)
French President Emmanuel Macron holds a press conference during a European Union leaders' summit, in Brussels, Belgium December 19, 2025. (Reuters)

Vladimir Putin is ready to talk with France's Emmanuel Macron over the war in Ukraine, the Russian president's spokesman said in an interview published Sunday.

Putin has "expressed readiness to engage in dialogue with Macron", Dmitry Peskov told state news agency RIA Novosti.

"Therefore, if there is mutual political will, then this can only be assessed positively."

Macron said this week he believed Europe should reach back out to Putin over ending the war.

"I believe that it's in our interest as Europeans and Ukrainians to find the right framework to re-engage this discussion" in the coming weeks, the French president said.

European Union leaders agreed on Friday to give Ukraine a loan of 90 billion euros ($105 billion) to plug looming budget shortfalls as the conflict approaches the end of its fourth year.

But they failed to agree on using frozen Russian assets to come up with the funds.

World

Australia Honors Bondi Beach Attack Victims as PM Orders Safety Review

Security watch over the "Light Over Darkness" vigil from the roof of the Bondi Hotel commemorating victims and survivors of a deadly mass shooting during a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on December 14, in Sydney, Australia, December 21, 2025. (Reuters)
Security watch over the "Light Over Darkness" vigil from the roof of the Bondi Hotel commemorating victims and survivors of a deadly mass shooting during a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on December 14, in Sydney, Australia, December 21, 2025. (Reuters)
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Australia Honors Bondi Beach Attack Victims as PM Orders Safety Review

Security watch over the "Light Over Darkness" vigil from the roof of the Bondi Hotel commemorating victims and survivors of a deadly mass shooting during a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on December 14, in Sydney, Australia, December 21, 2025. (Reuters)
Security watch over the "Light Over Darkness" vigil from the roof of the Bondi Hotel commemorating victims and survivors of a deadly mass shooting during a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on December 14, in Sydney, Australia, December 21, 2025. (Reuters)

Australia on Sunday was honoring victims of a gun attack a week earlier on a seaside Hanukkah celebration, as the prime minister announced a review of the country's law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

The nation was marking a day of reflection to honor the 15 people killed and the dozens wounded in the attack by two gunmen at Sydney's Bondi Beach. With security tight and flags at half-staff on government buildings, a minute of silence was to be held at 6:47 p.m. (0747 GMT), the time the attack began.

Authorities invited Australians to light a candle on Sunday evening, the start of the eighth and final day of the Jewish festival of lights, "as a quiet act of remembrance with ‌family, friends or loved ‌ones" of the victims of the attack, allegedly carried out by a ‌father ⁠and son.

An evening ‌memorial event at Bondi Beach will take place under a heavy police presence, including officers carrying long-arm firearms, police said in a statement.

ALBANESE UNDER PRESSURE TO CURB ANTISEMITISM

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the review, to be led by a former chief of Australia's spy agency, would probe whether federal police and intelligence agencies have the "right powers, structures, processes and sharing arrangements in place to keep Australians safe".

The attack exposed gaps in gun-license assessments and information-sharing between agencies that policymakers have said they want to plug. Albanese has announced a nationwide gun buyback, while gun safety experts say ⁠the nation's gun laws, among the world's toughest, are riddled with loopholes.

The authorities are investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism targeting ‌Jews. Patrols and policing across the country have been ramped up to ‍prevent further antisemitic violence. Authorities believe the gunmen were ‍inspired by the ISIS extremist group.

"The ISIS-inspired atrocity last Sunday reinforces the rapidly changing security ‍environment in our nation. Our security agencies must be in the best position to respond," Albanese said in a statement, adding that the review would conclude by the end of April.

Albanese, under pressure from critics who say his center-left government has not done enough to curb a surge in antisemitism since the start of the war in Gaza, has vowed to strengthen hate laws in the wake of the attack.

The Bondi Beach attack was the most serious of a string of antisemitic incidents in Australia, which have included attacks on synagogues, ⁠buildings and cars, since Israel launched the war in October 2023, in response to an attack by Hamas.

Albanese condemned anti-immigration rallies being held in Sydney and Melbourne on Sunday.

"There are organized rallies seeking to sow division in the aftermath of last Sunday’s antisemitic terrorist attack, and they have no place in Australia," he said in a statement. "They should not go ahead and people should not attend them.”

Only about 50 people were at the Sydney rally by mid-afternoon, according to a Reuters witness.

On Saturday, the government of New South Wales, which includes Sydney, pledged to introduce a bill on Monday to ban the display of symbols and flags of "terrorist organizations", including those of ISIS, Hamas, al-Qaeda, Al Shabaab, Boko Haram and Hezbollah.

Authorities say ISIS flags were found in the car the alleged attackers took to Bondi.

Alleged gunman Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead by police at the scene. His 24-year-old ‌son Naveed Akram, who was also shot by police and emerged from a coma on Tuesday, has been charged with 59 offenses, including murder and terrorism, according to police. He remains in custody in hospital.