Turkey detains 11 top medical group members over Syria criticism

ANKARA: Turkey yesterday 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 per cent of the country’s physicians, issued a statement saying that conflicts lead to ‘ irreparable problems’ and that ‘war is a manmade 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 ‘terroristlovers’.

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 on Monday 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 Jan 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.

Turkey sees the YPG as the Syrian offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party ( PKK), which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984. — AFP

File photo shows Syrian Kurds mourn during a funeral in the town of Afrin, of civilians and fighters from the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) who were killed in battles in Syria’s border region of Afrin as the Turkish army press an...