Turkey on Tuesday detained all the top members of the country’s main medical association, including its chief, after they criticised Ankara’s offensive against Kurdish militia in Syria.
The arrests came after the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), which represents 80 percent of the country’s physicians, issued a statement saying that conflicts lead to “irreparable problems” and that “war is a man-made public health problem”.
The TTB ended its statement on Wednesday with the words: “No to war, peace right now”. Prosecutors swiftly launched a probe, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday lashed out at the “so-called Turkish Medical Association” as “terrorist-lovers”.
Erdogan again hit out at the group on Sunday, saying: “They are not intellectuals, they are a gang of unthinking slaves... They are the servants of imperialism.” Among those held was TTB director Rasit Tukel, state-run news agency Anadolu said. The health ministry yesterday said it had filed a lawsuit seeking the removal of the 11 executive council members because they were “acting against the law”.
Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies launched a brutal offensive against Kurdish militia in the enclave of Afrin in northern Syria on January 20. Ankara, which considers the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia in Syria a “terror” group, has vowed to carry on and possibly expand the operation, despite international concern.
