Turkish doctors protest as 11 of their leaders are imprisoned

Members of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) gathered at the Ministry of Justice in Ankara on 14 May to petition against prison sentences imposed on their leadership for criticising a Turkish army operation in Syria.

All 11 members of the group’s central council were arrested in raids across the country in January 2018, after the group put out a statement saying “war is a public health problem,” in response to a Turkish army incursion into the Kurdish controlled Syrian district of Afrin.

On 5 May, 10 of the 11 were sentenced to 20 months’ imprisonment for “provoking people into animosity and hatred.”

They are Mehmet Raşit Tükel, Ayfer Horasan, Bülent Nazım Yılmaz, Dursun Yaşar Ulutaş, Funda Barlık Obuz, Mehmet Sezai Berber, Mustafa Tamer Gören, Selma …