A 13-hour protest by Turkish opposition lawmakers in parliament has ended.
The Republican People's Party (CHP) had called the protest over draft bylaw changes being considered by parliament.
"The CHP group, in protest at the silencing of the opposition, is not leaving parliament tonight," CHP deputy chairman Ozgur Ozel had said.
However, deputy speaker of the Turkish parliament, Ahmet Aydin, criticized the CHP and demanded an end to the action.
"This is not the street. It is the parliament of the nation … acts that are not complying with the severity of the parliament should be abandoned," he said.
He closed the session and lawmakers from the Justice and Development (AK) Party, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) left the hall, leaving CHP deputies in the chamber.
Aydin officially opened a session at 2.00 p.m. (1100 GMT) and the CHP deputies ended their protest.
Changes to the parliament’s bylaws had been proposed by the ruling AK Party and the MHP. Fourteen of 18 items in the legislation have been accepted by the general assembly and four are pending.
Deputies are voting on items that cover a range of bylaws, from the attire of the parliamentary speaker to the amount of time a law can be debated.
The proposed changes were accepted by parliament’s Constitutional Committee last week after being tabled by the AK Party and MHP in the face of criticism from the other two parliamentary parties.
One of the proposals would reduce the amount of time lawmakers can debate a parliamentary motion from 40 minutes to 14 minutes -- five minutes for the MP proposing the motion and three minutes each for an MP from the other three parties.
In other debates, the length of time a lawmaker can speak would also be cut from 10 minutes to three.
The planned changes would also impose heavy penalties on lawmakers who do not swear the correct parliamentary oath.
Those who fail to make the pledge at the beginning of a new parliament would not be recognized as a lawmaker of the Grand National Assembly.
These bylaws follow April’s referendum, as the country prepares to move towards a presidential system.
