A debate over 'IQ tests' between AK Party member Zengin and CHP member Günaydın: Let's see who passes and by how much.

The budgets of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM), the Constitutional Court, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the year 2025 are being discussed in the General Assembly of the TBMM.

After the completion of the speeches of the Saadet-Future Group regarding the budget, CHP Group Deputy Chairman Gökhan Günaydın reacted to the absence of TBMM President Numan Kurtulmuş in the budget discussions.

"THERE CAN BE NO MORE IMPORTANT BUSINESS THAN BEING HERE"

Günaydın stated: "Today we are discussing the budget of the TBMM to which we belong, but our Speaker is not here. If a speaker does not feel the need to participate in the discussions of their own assembly while the budget of their assembly is being discussed, how can this assembly maintain its dignity in front of the public? If the Speaker does not respect the members of parliament and the General Assembly, how can we reflect this to the outside? It will be said that 'The Speaker has something to do, that's why the Deputy Speaker came.' This budget program is known well in advance; there can be no more important business for the Speaker or for us, the members of parliament, than being here. I would like to express that the absence of Numan Kurtulmuş is a significant deficiency in terms of the dignity of the TBMM.

"THE SUPREME COURT GIVES AN 'UNJUST' DECISION, THE SPEAKER DOES NOT READ THE DECISION AND THIS ASSEMBLY DOES NOT MAKE A SOUND"

People are being admitted to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, but some are being admitted without any exam or interview. For example, Necdet Ünüvar. What happened to his son? He was appointed to the Ministry of Energy openly, and now he is the Deputy General Manager at the Ministry of Commerce. His daughter also came to the TBMM without an exam or interview and is now in a managerial position. Isn't it shameful, friends? Is it not shameful for a person to grant such privileges to their own child while looking the nation in the eye, and for the entire Assembly to be used for this?

Forget about just the personnel issue; this Assembly is one that cannot protect the rights of its own members. One of our friends, despite being elected by the will of the people, is still being held in prison in Silivri. Here, the Supreme Court gives an 'unjust' decision, the Speaker does not read the decision, the Supreme Court is adjusting the Speaker, saying 'How can you not read my decision?' and writes this in his decision, and this Assembly cannot make a sound, except for the opposition members.

"THE SPEAKER OF THE TBMM SHOULD BE WORKING WITH THE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT, REALIZING THE POWER OF LEGISLATION"

Saadet-Future Group Deputy Chairman Bülent Kaya also criticized Kurtulmuş's absence from the budget discussions, stating: "In the presidential government system, we are going through a process where laws created with technical studies coming from the presidential palace are being legalized by raising and lowering hands. The Speaker of the TBMM should be going through a process where they uphold the law of legislation. Unfortunately, many of our members of parliament, both from our party and from other parties, are experiencing a process where their written questions are not answered by the executive or are dismissed with careless responses. The Speaker of the TBMM should conduct a meeting regarding the executive on the issue of oversight, which is one of the essential functions of legislation, or should be working with all members of parliament in the TBMM, realizing the power of legislation.

We are again in a budget discussion, but regarding Can Atalay, whose membership is being held due to a judicial coup, the Speaker, while the Constitutional Court's decision is pending, especially despite having received a finalized court decision, has made it a waiting issue by saying 'Let's see what the Constitutional Court decides on this, then I will make a decision.' After the decision from the Constitutional Court, the fact that the Speaker has disregarded the decision of the Constitutional Court and has effectively made a judicial coup by having a Deputy Speaker read it is a disgrace in terms of the law of the Assembly.

"YOU WILL SAY THE MINISTRY DOES NOT EXIST, BUT YOU WILL ADDRESS ALL YOUR CONCERNS TO THE MINISTERS, A VERY FUNDAMENTAL CONTRADICTION"

AK Party Group Deputy Chairman Özlem Zengin also criticized the attitudes of Günaydın and Kaya, stating that the value of the Assembly is being diminished by the opposition. Criticizing the speeches of the members of parliament during the budget discussions, Zengin said: "If we are talking about the value of our Assembly, we, the members of parliament, both from the ruling and opposition parties, are the ones who need to understand this first. I see that the speeches that will diminish the value of the Assembly and the members of parliament are mostly made here. If we continue to stab ourselves in the back, something very serious will happen, and it is already happening. The speakers in the General Assembly should address the General Assembly, but instead, they are addressing the Ministers. On one hand, you will say the ministry does not exist, but on the other hand, you will address all your concerns to the Ministers; I think this is a very fundamental contradiction. Who is making this budget, where is this budget being passed? It is being passed in the General Assembly, so we must not forget that the addressees of these speeches are the General Assembly.

As the General Assembly, we have no option but to read the final judgment that reaches the TBMM. When a final judgment reaches there, the only thing done in the General Assembly is to read that judgment. We have no voting rights here. It is only presented to the General Assembly's knowledge, and subsequently, the event of losing membership occurs. It is worth remembering the imperative provision of the Constitution here. I keep the discussion between the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court separate; we are not a party there.

"WE KNOW HOW TO SPEAK"

In response to Zengin's criticisms regarding the order of the Assembly and the speeches of the members of parliament, Saadet Party's Kaya stated that Zengin's approach of seeing herself as the "commissioner of the group deputy chairpersons" is extremely unjust.

Kaya criticized Zengin's words as follows: "I find the approach of the AK Party Group Deputy Chairman, who sets limits on how we should speak and sees herself as the commissioner of the group deputy chairpersons, extremely unjust."Sure, here is the translated text while preserving the original HTML structure and translating the `title` and `alt` attributes of the `img` tags:



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We know how to speak well. Let him decide how he will speak. Our interlocutor here is not the AK Party. In the Presidential Government System, there is no distinction between government-opposition. There are the first and second parties in the Parliament. They should not expect us to treat them as interlocutors as if they are in power. The government is here, not there. Moreover, the AK Party is a lame duck that does not even have a majority in the Parliament. It is a party without a majority that does not have the support of its allied party.

We are discussing a budget prepared by the Presidency and presented to the Parliament. The Grand National Assembly of Turkey does not have the authority to change this budget. It can either accept or reject it. There is no consequence to rejecting it because the budget from last year will come into effect exactly as it is with the revaluation rate. In such an environment, if I do not consider the executive as an interlocutor, whom should I consider? The esteemed Ministers here are listening to us very attentively and taking notes, and at the end of the day, they respond to the words we have said from the podium. How is considering the Ministers as interlocutors a disorder against the General Assembly?

CHP's Günaydın responded to Zengin's statements by saying, "The daughter of Necdet Ünüvar, the daughter of Mustafa Destici will be admitted here without an exam, hundreds of thousands of our children will be unemployed wandering around, and when we express this, we will stab the Parliament! The moment they are admitted to the Parliament with such privileged treatment, we are stabbing the Parliament. If you could criticize the absence of the Speaker of the Parliament like I do, that would be a correct attitude," while showing his reaction after his words were interrupted, saying, "God damn it! A person should listen a little! A person should have some sense!"

"LET'S ALL TAKE AN IQ TEST; LET'S SEE WHO PASSES, IF YOU'RE VERY CURIOUS"

Özlem Zengin responded to Kaya's "commissioner" and Günaydın's "intellect" criticisms as follows: "We are now calmly responding; Mr. Kaya accuses me of being a commissioner. Look, your second response is very disturbing. Here I say: You are the one exhibiting a commissioner attitude. We are in power here. 'Are you in power?' Yes, we are. Even if you do not understand, we are in power. You are talking about completely unrelated things in every issue you mention. I held up a mirror to your attitude in the General Assembly. You are in a contradiction; if you think there is no Ministry of Justice, then you do not look back there, you do not look.

This Parliament is our Parliament; the speeches made here are being followed by the entire public. Who will vote? If we do not vote, how will the budget of the Ministry of Justice pass, how will the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pass? I want this to be understood by the General Assembly and the public. Let's not get into this intellect nonsense. If you want, let's all take an IQ test; let's see who passes, if you're very curious."

ÇİLEZ APOLOGIZED

During the speech of Bülent Kaya, who could not secure a majority in the Parliament without the MHP, the AK Party's ally in the People's Alliance, Amasya Deputy Hasan Çilez shouted from the AK Party benches, "How did you enter the Parliament? Whose lap did you enter the Parliament in?" Later, taking the floor, Çilez apologized for his remarks, saying: "Earlier, during the speeches in the Parliament, I made a comment on what Mr. Bülent Kaya said, which was directed at our friend from the Felicity Party Group. I received a warning from them that my words were perhaps a bit harsh or misunderstood. As a result of this warning, I would like to particularly express this: We absolutely do not accept any slang or other meanings being attributed to the words we say. If they understood the word I said here in a slang sense, I did not say such a word in a slang sense. All our parties here have been elected, all our friends have come by being elected. There are those who come within the culture of the alliance, but there are also many things that need to be discussed politically. If I have given rise to such an understanding, I would like them to particularly abandon this understanding. If I have said a word that could lead to a misunderstanding, I apologize to the entire General Assembly for that. I consider such an apology as a virtue, and I especially ask our friends to forgive me if I have hurt their feelings."