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2023-12-15 -Obits-
Turkish lawmaker dies two days after collapsing while giving a speech saying Israel would 'suffer the wrath of Allah' for invading Gaza
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Hasan Bitmez, 54, a member of parliament from the opposition Felicity (Saadet) Party, died in Ankara City Hospital, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca told reporters in televised remarks.

Video had showed Bitmez falling to 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.

At 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.

Bitmez, who is married and has a child, was taken to the Bilkent City Hospital in Ankara where he underwent treatment in the intensive care unit while in a critical condition.

Koca said on Tuesday that an angiography revealed that the two main veins in his heart were completely blocked.

'His heart stopped beating, then he was resuscitated in parliament and transferred within 20 minutes to hospital' where medical machinery kept him alive, Koca had said on Tuesday.

But Koca revealed that Bitmez died today - two days after he suffered the heart attack.

A graduate of Cairo's Al Azhar University, Bitmez was the chairman of the Centre for Islamic Union Research and had previously worked for Islamic non-governmental organisations, his parliament biography shows.

Shortly before he collapsed on Tuesday, Bitmez had been criticising President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party (AKP) over Turkey's ongoing trade with Israel despite the war in Gaza, and despite the government's sharp rhetorical criticism of Israel's military bombardment.

"You allow ships to go to Israel and you shamelessly call it trade... You are Israel's accomplice," Bitmez said in his speech after placing a banner on the podium reading: "Murderer Israel; collaborator AKP".

"You have the blood of Palestinians on your hands, you are collaborators. You contribute to every bomb Israel drops on Gaza," he told lawmakers during debate over the foreign ministry's 2024 budget.

After finishing the speech, Bitmez suddenly fell backward on the floor, with other MPs rushing from their seats to help. It has now been confirmed he died today after receiving treatment in hospital.

Bitmez was elected as the 28th Term Kocaeli Deputy in the elections of May 14, 2023. He served for the opposition Felicity (Saadet) Party, which 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.

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.
Posted by Skidmark 2023-12-15 00:00|| || Front Page|| [20 views ]  Top
 File under: Sublime Porte 

#1 Sort of a cautionary tale.
Posted by Super Hose 2023-12-15 05:27||   2023-12-15 05:27|| Front Page Top

#2 These vaccinated people shouldn't whip themselves up into a frenzy...bad for the ticker.

'Burg entry from Tuesday
Posted by DooDahMan 2023-12-15 05:34||   2023-12-15 05:34|| Front Page Top

#3 ....My goodness....karma is working very fast these days.

Mike
Posted by MikeKozlowski 2023-12-15 06:15||   2023-12-15 06:15|| Front Page Top

#4 I still get a chuckle.
Posted by Skidmark 2023-12-15 06:41||   2023-12-15 06:41|| Front Page Top

#5 Got a Schadenfreude grin already today.
Posted by DarthVader 2023-12-15 09:06||   2023-12-15 09:06|| Front Page Top

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