At a Turkish National Movement Party (MHP) rally, “Towards 2023: the Candidate is Obvious, the Decision is Clear,” party leader Devlet Bahçeli targeted the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and its chairwoman Şebnem Korur Fincancı over “chemical weapons” claims.
Targeting the TTB chair, Bahçeli accused Fincancı of making a “U-turn” on her claim that symptoms coherent with chemical gases had been evidenced in northern Iraq, and then he let rip with, “Whoever makes accusations against the noble Turkish soldier is a terrorist, dishonest, a traitor, and the spilled blood of the martyrs is on their heads.”
Bahçeli added, “The Turkish armed forces have recently been disreputably slandered.”
Calling its chairperson to account, the ultra-nationalist leader said that the association must be brought before the courts and be shut down.
Although Turkey blasted claims of chemical weapon use against Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq as “completely unfounded and untrue”, the Medical Association chair, in an interview with Medya Haber TV, said toxic chemical gas that directly affects the nervous system had been used during the operations.
An investigation was launched against Fincancı just hours after the far-right Nationalist Movement Party’s MP targeted her at the rally.
“They are giving an ultimatum to society by targeting me,” Fincancı said to AFP news cited by AlArabiya News.