Turkey doctors get prison terms for criticizing offensive against Syrian Kurds in Afrin
Turkey’s Doctors Protest Detentions of Turkish Medical Association Members, February 2018. Photo: Twitter
ANKARA,— Eleven members of Turkey’s leading medical association were sentenced to prison terms on Friday over criticisms of a military offensive against Kurdish militants in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) last year.
They were given 20 months in prison for “inciting hatred and hostility,” one of those convicted, Seyhmus Gokalp, told AFP.
The 11 had made up the central committee of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) when it issued a statement in January 2018 saying “war is a man-made public health problem” in response to Turkey’s offensive in the western Kurdish enclave of Afrin in Syria.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the time lambasted the group as “a gang of unthinking slaves”.
One member, Hande Arpat, was sentenced to a further 19 months for “terrorist propaganda” over postings on social media, the association said in a statement.
The association has over 83,000 members representing 80 percent of Turkey’s doctors. Five of the convicted members remain on its central council.
The 11 remain free pending appeal, Gokalp said, adding that the ruling was “a punishment against the right to live healthily in peace” in Turkey.
“A punishment was given by the court but we do not accept it. We will do everything we can to annul this. We will fight until the end,” TTB chairman and another of those convicted, Sinan Adiyaman, said.
Turkey accuses the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) of being a “terrorist offshoot” of Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK
Hundreds, mostly Kurds, were detained for criticising the operation on social media.
Ankara has previously launched two operations in Syrian Kurdistan.
On August 24, 2016, the Turkish troops entered northern Syria in an area some 100 km east of Afrin to stop the Kurdish YPG forces from extending areas under their control and connecting Syrian Kurdistan’s Kobani and Hasaka in the east with Afrin canton in the west.
In January 2018, Turkish military forces backed pro-Ankara Syrian mercenary fighters to clear the YPG from its northwestern enclave of Afrin. In March 2018, the operation was completed with the capture of the Kurdish city of Afrin.
The flags of Turkey and Syrian rebel groups were raised in the Kurdish Afrin city and a statue of Kurdish hero Kawa, a symbol of resistance against oppressors, was torn down.
Residents of the Kurdish city and Human right groups accuse Turkey and pro-Ankara fighters of kidnappings for ransom, armed robberies and torture.
Since December 2018, Turkey has repeatedly threatened to intervene militarily against the Kurdish YPG forces in Syrian Kurdistan,
U.S. has for years supported the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria, as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). But U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly announced the pullout from Syria.
The Kurdish PYD and its powerful military wing YPG/YPJ considered the most effective fighting force against IS. The YPG, which make up the backbone of the SDF forces, has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State.
In 2013, the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD — the political branch of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) — has established three autonomous Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan in 2013. On March 17, 2016, Kurdish and Arab authorities announced the creation of a “federal region” made up of those semi-autonomous regions in Syrian Kurdistan.
Copyright © 2019, respective author or news agency, Ekurd.net | AFP
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