Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Chair and forensic expert Dr Şebnem Korur Fincancı was detained in Turkey for her comments about the circulating allegations that Turkey used chemical weapons against Kurdish fighters.
The Turkish Medical Association (TBB) issued a press statement strongly protesting against Fincancı’s targeting and subsequent detention, as the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Mithat Sancar paid a solidarity visit to the TTB, emphasising the importance of a common struggle against the Turkish government’s attacks.
Sancar said that the Turkish president ordered the judiciary to take action against Dr Fincancı, about whom a lynching campaign has been organised for some time.
“TTB is an affiliated organisation with the values of medicine, principles of human rights, and carries out an effective struggle in this field,” said Sancar, and suggested that the TTB, which defines war as a public health issue, rejects war policies, was targeted for this reason.
Emphasising the political dimension of the issue, Sancar said, “As opposition to war policies spread, this government’s election strategies and governing threats come to nothing. TTB is being targeted because it does exactly that and because Şebnem Korur Fincancı embraces and maintains this tradition in the most open way.” he added.
TTB Secretary-General Vedat Bulut said at the press conference that Fincancı’s detention came after the ruling circles’ statements that interfered with the judiciary. “This is the last stretch of the pressure that these circles have put on the TTB and all labour-professional organisations for a long time,” Bulut said.
Bulut also noted that the investigation against the TTB chair has no legal basis, and that absolutely nothing Fincancı said was in any way criminal.