On January 24th 2018 the Turkish Medical Association (Türk Tabipleri Birliği, or TTB) released a brief, non-partisan statement titled “War is a public health problem". The statement highlighted the numerous negative health impacts of warfare, and expressed the principle that as members of a profession sworn to protect and preserve health the TTB were opposed to armed conflict.
Since the release of this statement, the TTB central council have been publicly denounced as traitors, received multiple death threats, and many of them have been arrested.
We, the undersigned, support our Turkish colleagues’ freedom of speech and wholeheartedly endorse their message. War is a public health emergency, and as such health professionals have a right and a duty to speak about it. Both the direct effects of physical and psychological trauma, and the indirect consequences (such as displacement, malnutrition, infrastructure damage and infectious disease outbreaks), are extremely harmful to human health and must not be ignored or neglected by those in positions of power. We welcome the TTB’s statement on this matter, and call upon all parties to support the development of a political climate in Turkey in which health professionals can speak out on important public health topics without fear of violence, persecution or imprisonment.
Signed, Daniel Flecknoe on behalf of the following organisations:
British Medical Association
Faculty of Public Health
Medact Primary Prevention of War Public Health Working Group
