Does anyone else remember the days of live parliament a few years after the transition to democracy?

The most exciting thing about it was looking out for the politicians who had passed out from boredom.

Now, ‘Parliament Fight Club’ is the new normal in South Africa, but you might be surprised to learn that we aren’t the only country that throws down whenever our politicians disagree.

We’ll get into the latest meeting of the Turkish General Assembly in a second.

First, some background from Vox:

Turkey launched a military offensive against the Syrian regime in direct retaliation for the killing of about three dozen of its troops last week in Idlib, Syria.

As part of Operation Spring Shield, as the offensive is being called, Turkey has already shot down two Syrian warplanes and killed more than 2,000 Syrian regime troops, according to Turkey’s defense minister, Hulusi Akar. Akar also said Turkey destroyed 103 tanks, 72 artillery and rocket launchers, and three air defense systems.

Turkey escalated its operations in northeastern Syria last week, after the Syrian regime pushed to reclaim the last rebel-held territory.

In Turkey’s parliament, MP Engin Ozkoc criticised President Erdogan over the country’s intervention in Syria, and then all hell broke loose:

The EFF have got nothing on Turkey – everyone is getting involved. The closest we’ve come to this is the brawl that happened at a meeting of the Special Council in Tshwane, where the EFF, ANC and DA were all hitting each other.

A closer look at the fisticuffs:

Apparently this is not unusual.

Turkey’s political gatherings routinely turn violent.

What a world we live in.

[source:vox]