Turkish Lawmaker’s Heart Stops After Condemning Israel in Speech

A Turkish member of parliament collapsed at the General Assembly hall after condemning the government’s support of Israel’s war with Hamas on Tuesday in a reported heart attack. According to the Daily Mail, the deputy head of Turkey’s conservative Islamist Felicity Party, Hasan Bitmez, said, “We can perhaps hide from our conscience but not from history… Israel will not escape the wrath of Allah,” before fainting and hitting his head on the marble floor. Gazete Duvar reported that Bitmez, 53, was given chest compressions “for a long time” before being taken out of the building on a stretcher. Dr. Fahrettin Koca, the health minister of Turkey, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Bitmez was “intubated and brought to Ankara Bilkent City Hospital.” After testing, he was “put on a heart-lung pump and taken to intensive care.”