Head of Turkish Medical Association is arrested after calling for investigation of army

The president of the Turkish Medical Association (Türk Tabipleri Birliği; TTB) has been arrested after calling for an investigation into claims that the Turkish army used chemical weapons against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq.

The TTB and its president, Şebnem Korur Fincancı, 63, a professor in the department of forensic medicine at Istanbul University, have for years been targeted by harsh rhetoric and legal threats from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his political allies.

Fincancı made her comments after media outlets affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) released video footage purporting to show a chemical weapons attack by Turkish soldiers on two PKK militants hiding in a cave. The video went on to show a man and a woman in severe physical distress.1

Asked to comment by a journalist while …