Staff were left cleaning blood stains from the floor of Turkey’s parliament following a 30-minute brawl involving dozens of lawmakers.

Fisticuffs in the chamber are not at all unusual in the Turkish legislature, but—as shown by a bne IntelliNews report published at the end of July following an attack led by an ex-transport minister on an opposition MP—there have been some particularly ugly episodes lately.

The latest physical confrontation, which left at least two MPs injured, with head wounds, broke out on August 16 as lawmakers argued over a jailed opposition deputy, Can Atalay, 48, who won his seat while campaigning from prison, but was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in January.

An MP of the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) Alpay Ozalan launched into Ahmet Sik, like Atalay a member of the small leftist Workers’ Party of Turkey (TIP).

“It’s no surprise that you call Atalay a terrorist,” Sik said, as reported by Reuters. “All citizens should know that the biggest terrorists of this country are those seated on those benches [of the ruling majority].”

Ozalan, a former footballer, responded to the remark by striding to the rostrum and shoving Sik to the ground, an AFP journalist in parliament reported.

While down on the ground, Sik was punched several times by AKP lawmakers. Dozens of lawmakers piled into the fight.

A deputy from the main opposition Republican People’s party (CHP) and one from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) party were left with head injuries.

Atalay is one of seven defendants sentenced in 2022 to 18 years in prison at the conclusion of a controversial trial in which award-winning philanthropist Osman Kavala was jailed for life.

Parliament’s decision in January to exclude Atalay followed a supreme court of appeals that ruling that upheld his conviction. But on August 1, the constitutional court declared that Atalay’s removal as a member of parliament was “null and void”. MPs of the AKP and far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) joined forces to defeat an opposition motion that followed up the constitutional court ruling.