16/11/2023 | Writer: Selma Koçak
“Is there anyone who calls you ‘Hasan the man’? This expression has such a bad connotation. Isn’t their real crime enough to explain the gravity of the situation and you need to refer their sexual orientation as if it were a crime?”
Felicity Party Kocaeli MP Hasan Bitmez criticised Israel’s occupation of Gaza and Turkey's relations with Israel saying “Israel’s gay parliamentary speaker” within the scope of his speech at the General Assembly of the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Deputy Speaker Sırrı Süreyya Önder, from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (HEDEP) quota, reacted to Bitmez’s irrelevant reference to homosexuality and warned Bitmez.
When Bitmez quoted Mehmet Akif Ersoy’s poem titled “We have a tremendous events that crossed the ocean broke through", which contains some abusive and insulting words contrary to parliamentary language, Deputy Speaker Sırrı Süreyya Önder intervened and said the following:
“I have to interrupt you. I invite you not to use abusive and insulting language on the grounds of by-law Article 66 regulating plenary meetings. If you persist on I will not allow you to continue your speech. Primarily you say ‘gay parliamentary speaker’. Is there anyone who calls you ‘Hasan the man’ or a woman ‘Ayşe the woman’? This expression has such a bad connotation, such as hate murders... Isn’t their real crime enough to explain the gravity of the situation and you need to refer their sexual orientation as if it were a crime? This kind of talk and using abusive language motivate and encourage hate crimes in the society. You use the word ‘bootlicker’, it is unacceptable.”
Tags: human rights
