Can Atalay, stripped of his parliamentary seat and held in prison since 2022, began a hunger strike as parliament reconvened on Oct. 1, while the main opposition Yeni Party walked out when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took the floor during the opening speech.
Atalay, elected to parliament from Hatay from TİP in 2023 and was not permitted to return to his seat despite the Constitutional Court’s ruling, announced his decision on social media.
'The knife has now hit the bone. Today, as parliament opens, I am starting a 24-hour hunger strike to give voice to the usurped right of representation of the people of Hatay and the unheard voice of workers, the poor, all our people and those hungry for justice,' Atalay said.
'This is also a call for the Constitution to be obeyed, for Constitutional Court rulings to be implemented and for the obstacle preventing me from doing my job to be removed,' he said.
DEM Party lawmakers unfurled a poster of Atalay during Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş's speech.
FROM GEZI TO PRISON
Atalay served as a lawyer for Taksim Solidarity, the group formed to oppose plans to build a shopping mall in Istanbul's Gezi Park. He was detained over this role. Acquitted in two trials, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison in a third. He has been in prison since April 2022.
Atalay was elected from Hatay in the May 14, 2023, general election. The Court of Cassation and a lower court refused to release him, and he applied to the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court ruled that his rights had been violated, but he was still not released.
Parliament stripped Atalay of his seat on Jan. 30, 2024, when the Court of Cassation's ruling was read out in the General Assembly. The Constitutional Court later ruled that the move was null and void. That ruling was also read out in parliament in April 2025 by then-CHP Deputy Speaker Gülizar Karaca, but it has not been implemented.
WALKOUT AND PROTESTS AGAINST ERDOĞAN
CHP and Yeni Party lawmakers did not stand when Erdoğan entered the chamber. CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who is not a lawmaker and watched from the gallery, also remained seated.
Yeni Party Chair Özgür Özel and his party's lawmakers left the chamber when Erdoğan began speaking. AKP lawmakers gave Erdoğan a standing ovation after the walkout and slammed the Yeni Party.
Speaking to journalists afterward, Özel said the protest was over operations against municipalities, the trials and the transfer of politicians to other parties. Yeni Party lawmakers also boycotted parliament's reception for the new legislative year. Özel will instead hold a meeting with his lawmakers at party headquarters.
SENDING REGARDS TO PRISON
As one of the few party chairs who attended the new legislative year reception, the MHP’s Devlet Bahçeli sent his regards to PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan through members of the DEM Party's İmralı delegation.
Bahçeli greeted delegation members Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar and asked how Öcalan was doing. 'Give him my regards,' Bahçeli said, after Buldan noted that their last visit was on Sept. 13.
Since the voice recordings were not clear in the videos, some reported that Bahçeli sent regards to jailed politician Selahattin Demirtaş.
Journalists asked Bahçeli about Demirtaş remaining in prison, although former Diyarbakır Metropolitan Co-Mayor Selçuk Mızraklı had been released. 'I won't go that deep, sir. Thank you very much,' Bahçeli said. Asked whether the 'Terror-Free Turkey' process could be completed in 2027, Bahçeli said: 'I am hopeful about the future.'
Parliament Speaker Kurtulmuş hosted the reception in parliament's Ceremonial Hall to mark the opening of the fifth legislative year of the 28th term. State officials, ministers and lawmakers from several parties attended. Bahçeli was the first party leader to arrive.
However, most of the opposition was lacking. Like Özel, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan did not attend the reception.
İYİ Party leader Müsavat Dervişoğlu attended the reception but greeted only Kurtulmuş. He left without shaking hands with Bahçeli. CHP deputies were also missing during the reception, similar to those from EMEP and TİP.
DEM Party co-chairs Tuncer Bakırhan and Tülay Hatimoğulları did not attend, but the party's deputy parliamentary group leaders did.
