President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s harsh rhetoric against his opponents is widely known at home and abroad. Yet a dramatic incident at the Turkish parliament last week provided insight into the fates of those who dare use the same rhetoric against him.

On March 4, a lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) criticized Erdogan by using the same words the president used to insult the CHP leader, setting off a brawl at the Turkish parliament. A lawmaker from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) punched CHP lawmaker Engin Ozkoc numerous times. A prosecutor then launched a probe against Ozkoc on charges of “insulting the president.”

Events were set into motion when Erdogan accused CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu of supporting the Syrian regime, saying that “whoever casts a shadow on Turkey’s dignified struggle in Syria is dishonorable, ignoble, low and treacherous.”

That same day, Ozkoc criticized Erdogan for referring to the Turkish soldiers killed in Libya in the past month as "a few martyrs," calling Erdogan, in turn, dishonorable, ignoble, low and treacherous.