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After the former members of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Central Council were sentenced to prison on May 3, 2019 for their declaration entitled "War is a Public Health Problem", the TTB appealed to the Ministry of Justice yesterday (May 14).
Making a statement for the press in front of the TTB Central Office in the capital city of Ankara, TTB Vice Chair Ali Çerkezoğlu criticized the Ministry of Health in following words: "We expect the Ministry to explain this shame to 145 thousand physicians in our country."
Çerkezoğlu said, "In a country where the TTB Central Council members are sentenced to prison, no one can talk about the law, rights or justice."
'This arbitrariness cannot be accepted'
Referring to the conviction of former TTB Central Council members as "a shame of the law", Çerkezoğlu further stated, "We cannot explain this situation to the World Medical Association, its affiliated medical associations in other countries or other physicians' associations."
"We do not want this unlawful arbitrariness to be accepted", he added.
After TTB Vice Chair Ali Çerkezoğlu concluded his remarks, physicians went to the Ministry of Justice and submitted a petition, expressing their concerns over the unlawful points in the judicial process.
In their petition, executives of the TTB and other medical associations also stressed that if the judicial system is unfair and partial, violence against health workers cannot be prevented, social peace cannot be maintained and physicians cannot practice their profession in a good and honorable manner.
High Honorary Board: Council members are our honor
The High Honorary Board of the TTB has also denounced the prison sentences given to the former Central Council members.
Releasing a statement they have stated, "Our colleagues member to the TTB Central Council did what their responsibilities both as an honorable physician and an executive of a medical association required them to do. The TTB Central Council members are our honor."
What happened?After 11 members of the TTB Central Council released a statement entitled "War is a public health problem" in response to the Turkish Armed Forces' (TAF) "Operation Olive Branch" into Syria's Afrin in January 2018, a lawsuit was filed against them on charges of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" and "inciting the public to enmity and hatred. Announcing its ruling on May 3, 2019, the court has ruled that 10 former members of the TTB Central Council shall be sentenced to 1 year, 8 months in prison. Tried in the same lawsuit, one person has been sentenced to 3 years, 3 months and 22 days in prison. The ones sentenced to 1 year, 8 months in prison are as follows: Mehmet Raşit Tükel, Sinan Adıyaman, Ayfer Horasan, Bülent Nazım Yılmaz, Dursun Yaşar Ulutaş, Funda Barlık Obuz, Mehmet Sezai Berber, Mustafa Tamer Gören, Selma Göngür, Şeyhmuz Gökalp. Hande Arpat has been sentenced to 3 years, 3 months and 22 days in prison. Since the physicians rejected the deferment of the announcement of their verdicts, their prison sentences have not been deferred. Their verdicts of conviction will be taken to the court of appeal. |
(HA/SD)
