A civil court in Ankara has dismissed all 11 elected leaders of the central council of the Turkish Medical Association (Türk Tabipler Birliği; TTB) in a lawsuit brought by government lawyers after the group’s president criticised Turkish military operations in Syria.

The court’s decision was denounced by Turkish civil society groups, which said that the government was seeking to shut down a major voice in the country’s democratic debate, and by international doctors’ groups, including the World Medical Association, Physicians for Human Rights, the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, and the Standing Committee of European Doctors.

The case was brought after the TTB president, Şebnem Korur Fincancı, commented in October 2022 on a video circulated by Kurdish groups that they claimed showed chemical weapons being used by Turkish forces. Interviewed by the Kurdish aligned Medya Haber TV, Fincancı called for independent investigators to be allowed to enter the conflict zone.

State prosecutors charged her with “making propaganda …

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