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Criminal, Legal, and Administrative Restrictions Aim At Limiting Turkish Doctors in Aiding Injured Protesters

May 22, 2014

Taksim square volunteer medical help. Events of June 3, 2013

Taksim square volunteer medical help. Events of June 3, 2013. By Mstyslav Chernov ) via Wikimedia Commons

CCS joins international outcry at measures instituted in Turkey against doctors who set up emergency medical facilities to treat protesters injured during demonstrations last summer. Criminal prosecutions started in May, 2014, call for long jail sentences. Legislation and administrative measures punish emergency care taken without government oversight last summer, putting professionals in conflict with their ethical obligations.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Office of the Prime Minister
Vekaletler Caddesi Basbakanlik Merkez Bina’
06573 Kizilay, Ankara, Turkey

May 14, 2014

Your Excellency:

We are writing in concern with punitive action against Turkish physicians who provided emergency care to persons injured during protests in May of 2013.

According to press reports, doctors following their ethical duty to treat injuries are being prosecuted among other defendants in criminal trials that started on May 6, 2014 in Istanbul’s Criminal Court of First Instance. The doctors are being prosecuted for their actions in a makeshift medical center in the Bezmi Alem Valide Sultan Mosque on June 1, 2013, for allegedly establishing unauthorized emergency medical centers and for using the mosque for this purpose. Doctors Selcan Yuksel and Erenc Ysemin Dokudag face criminal charges calling for up to 11 years in jail.

These charges are taking place in the context of legislation signed by Turkish President Abdullah Guhl on January 17, 2014, criminalizing emergency care for protester and fining medical professionals for certain related actions. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) called the law as “part of the Turkish government’s continuing effort to harass the medical community for treating those in need, including demonstrators injured during last summer’s anti-government protests.” We understand that leading medical associations and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health Care have criticized the law, which puts professionals in conflict with their internationally recognized ethical obligations, as well as with Turkish law.

Finally, we are also concerned with the Ministry of Health’s lawsuit against the Turkish Medical Association. According to PHR, that action would remove from office the governors of the Association because of the establishment of urgently needed emergency healthcare units during the protests at Gezi Park and in other cities in 2013.

We join the numerous medical associations around the world that have protested the trials, the law, and the actions of the Ministry of Health. These include the World Medical Association, British and German medical associations, and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. We urge you to order the immediate dropping of criminal and civil actions against medical personnel acting under their ethical obligations to treat the injured, including protesters injured during demonstrations. We recommend that the law authorizing these trials be repealed and that administrative actions pursuing the same punitive goals be ceased immediately.

Sincerely,

Joel L. Lebowitz, Paul H. Plotz, Walter Reich,
Eugene M. Chudnovsky, Alexander Greer

Co-Chairs, Committee of Concerned Scientists

Copies to:

President Abdullah Gul, Cumhurbaskanligi 06689 Cankaya, Ankara

President of the Turkish National Assembly, Mr. Cemil Cicek
06543 Bakanliklar, Ankara, Turkey

Minister of Health, Dr. Mehmet Muezzinoglu
Mithatpasa Cad, No 306434 Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey

Deputy Prime Minister Responsible for Human Rights and Counter Terrorism
Mr. Besir Atalay, Email: besir.atalay@tbmm.gov.tr

UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Mr. Anand Grover
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Palais des Nations, CH-1211, Geneva 10, Switzerland

Related articles
  • Turkey Passes Bill that Criminalizes Emergency Medical Care (physiciansforhumanrights.org)
  • PHR Files Legal Brief in Support of Turkish Medical Association (physiciansforhumanrights.org)
  • Turkish doctors condemn government curbs on emergency treatment (theguardian.com)
  • Another blow to Human Rights in Turkey (humanrightsturkey.org)
  • Gezi trials target health workers (humanrightsturkey.org)

Filed Under: Turkey Tagged With: American Academy of Emergency Medicine, Ministry of Health, Physicians, Turkey, World Medical Association

Who We Are

Co-chairs

Joel L. Lebowitz, Rutgers University

Paul H. Plotz, M.D., Washington, DC

Walter Reich, George Washington University

Eugene Chudnovsky, Lehman College

Alexander Greer, Brooklyn College

Vice-chairs

Astronomy – Arno Penzias, New Enterprises Associates*

Biology – Max E. Gottesman, Columbia University

Chemistry – Zafra Lerman, MIMSAD Inc.

Computer Science – Rachelle Heller, The George Washington University

Computer Science – Jack Minker, University of Maryland, College Park

Engineering – Philip Sarachik, NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering

Mathematics – Simon Levin, Princeton University

Medical Sciences – J. Joseph Blum, Duke University

Honorary Board Members

Nancy Andrews, Duke University

David Baltimore, California Institute of Technology*

Alan J. Bard, University of Texas

Jacob Bigeleisen (deceased), SUNY, Stony Brook

Raoul Bott (deceased), Harvard University

Owen Chamberlain (deceased), University of California, Berkeley

Stanley Deser, Brandeis University

Edward Gerjuoy, University of Pittsburg

David Gross, (2004 Nobel Prize in Physics), Kavil Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara*

Pierre Hohenberg (deceased), New York University

Walter Kohn (deceased), University of California, Santa Barbara*

James Langer, University of California, Santa Barbara

Peter Lax, New York University

Louis Nirenberg, New York University

Marshall Nirenberg (deceased), National Institutes of Health*

Honorary Board Members

John C. Polanyi, University of Toronto*

Stuart Rice, University of Chicago

Sir Richard J. Roberts, (1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology & Medicine), New England Biolabs*

Myriam Sarachick, City College of New York

Harold Scheraga, Cornell University

Sylvan Schweber (deceased), Brandeis University

Maxine Singer, Carnegie Institution of Washington

Alfred I. Tauber, Boston University

Steven Weinberg, University of Texas, Austin*

Myrna Weissman, Columbia University

Rosalyn S. Yalow (deceased), Mount Sinai School of Medicine*

* Nobel laureate

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