11 ‘terrorist’ doctors detained

ISTANBUL: Turkish authorities began to detain a number of doctors from the board of the Turkish Medical Association over a statement released last week that condemned war as a public health threat.

The private Dogan news agency said 11 doctors were set to be detained. Cumhuriyet newspaper said there were pre-dawn raids at some of the doctors’ homes.

“The Turkish government should be protecting the Turkish Medical Association from threats of violence. Instead it is detaining doctors from their beds this morning on false accusations of ‘terrorist propaganda’,” said Andrew Gardner, a researcher at Amnesty International, the human rights group.

The doctors’ association, of which most Turkish doctors are members, have faced a range of threats since their statement. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly slammed the organisation in recent days, calling the board “terrorist lovers”, fools and supporters of imperialism.

Ali Seker, a medic and member of parliament from the main opposition People’s Republican Party, denounced the detentions, likening the move to the 1980 military coup, when doctors faced arrest.

“Fascism is targeting this country again,” Seker wrote on Twitter.

Turkey has launched a military operation targeting Afrin, a Kurdish-enclave inSyria held by the YPG, a group Ankara dubs a terrorist organisation.