Turkish president urged to end campaign against physicians


A call for the leaders of the Turkish Medical Association (TMA) to be reinstalled following their dismissal by the Turkish Government has come from the World Medical Association.

This follows the removal of the TMA Secretary General Dr. Bülent Nazim Yilmaz from his duty as a public servant and the termination of family medicine contracts of TMA Council members.

WMA Secretary General Dr. Otmar Kloiber said: ‘We urge the President of Turkey to intervene to stop these unwarranted attacks on leading members of the medical profession. In issuing its press statement earlier this year declaring that ‘War is a Public Health Problem’, the Turkish Medical Association was simply stating the self evident fact that war causes major health problems. This is in line with WMA policy and the belief that war should be avoided wherever possible because of its impact on health.

‘We are appalled at the way leading members of the TMA have been treated over the past few months. The Turkish Medical Association has a proud record of upholding human rights and denouncing all violence and we call on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to end the malicious state campaign of harassment against them’.

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