Hasan Bitmez dies in an Ankara hospital two days after suffering a heart attack during an anti-Israel speech.
A Turkish opposition lawmaker who suffered a heart attack and collapsed in parliament during a speech criticizing the government’s policies toward Israel has died.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Thursday that Hasan Bitmez, a 54-year-old member of the Islamist Saadet Partisi, or Felicity Party, had died in a hospital in Ankara two days after the incident.
“You allow ships to go to Israel, and you shamelessly call it trade. … You are Israel’s accomplice,” Bitmez said on Tuesday in his speech targeting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), after placing a poster on stage that read: “Killer Israel; AKP employee.”
“Even if you escape the torment of history, you will not escape the wrath of God,” he said at the end of the 20-minute speech before collapsing behind the lectern.
Other members of the Grand National Assembly rushed to help, and Koca said on Tuesday that Bitmez “was resuscitated in parliament and transferred to hospital within 20 minutes,” where medical equipment had kept him alive.
The opposition figure, married and the father of one child, graduated from Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, worked for Islamic non-governmental groups and chaired the Center for Islamic Union Research.
His speech accused the government of continuing friendly economic ties with Israel during the attack on Gaza, which killed nearly 19,000 Palestinians. His comments drew cheers from AK Party members.
While Erdogan has worked to improve ties with Israel after a period of frosty relations, he has also spoken out against the current war between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas, calling Israel a “terrorist state” and calling for a ceasefire -the-fire.
During a small ceremony on Thursday on the grounds of the Grand National Assembly, Bitmez’s coffin was covered with a Turkish flag, and a small Palestinian flag was also attached to it.
