Turkish MP falls asleep in parliament after campaign vow to not 'sleep'

Rıza Özel - ANKARA

A new deputy from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has fallen asleep in a parliament session, breaking his campaign promise during the third session he attended.

“I’m not going to the parliament to sleep,” singer-turned-politician Uğur Işılak had told daily Türkiye before the June 7 general election, vowing to work tirelessly to improve legislation on culture and arts.

Işılak fell asleep during a fiery parliament session on terror attacks in Turkey on July 29. It was only the third parliamentary session he attended, following new deputies’ oath-taking session and the session to elect a parliament speaker.

Işılak’s political rise started last year when he adapted the lyrics of a Central Asian folk tune, “Dombra,” as a tribute to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, praising him as the “feared nightmare of the oppressor,” “the light of hope of millions” and “the leader awaited for years.” 

Later, he composed the AKP’s election campaign song in which he praised Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu to the skies, saluting him as a “wise, brave man” who is a “true grandson of the Ottomans.”

After he was nominated as an AKP deputy, Işılak’s controversial statements resurfaced earlier this year. “In her heart, if every feminist does not have the feeling of being chained to a husband or a man, being his slave … or belonging to him, she should come and face me because this is in the nature of every woman,” he said June 2012.