Health Professionals in Turkey React to Zionist Israeli Aggression

The Health professionals and the largest and most influential health organizations condemned and demanded a stop to the Zionist Israeli terrorism in the Middle East.

Turkish Physicians Association (TTB), Istanbul Chamber of Physicians, Istanbul Chamber of Dentists, Istanbul Chamber of Pharmacists, Istanbul Chamber of Veterinary Doctors, The Union of Health Care Laborers Istanbul Branches convened in front of the Istanbul Numune Hospital at 12:30PM and held a press release.

During the press release, a letter to prominent decision makers was read by Ali Çerkezoğlu, the Central Council member of the Turkish Physicians Association. The president of the Istanbul Chamber of Physicians, Özdemir Aktan spoke at the gathering and said, “No one can stand silent in the face of Israeli attacks on the most basic and most important human rights of all: the right to live and the right to health.”

The representatives of the health organizations and professionals sent the letter below, read previously in the press release, to the UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, the Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the House Assembly Speaker:

Press Release
To the media and to the public

The screams of the Lebanese and Palestinian children and their mothers are being heard from Istanbul!

To defend the right to live, and more importantly, to defend a healthy living is the universal primary value to be upheld to be a physician in our country and in the world.

Now, in addition to the Palestinian people whose most basic rights to life and as a nation been denied under the open occupation conditions for years, the right to live is being taken away from the Lebanese people as well.

Millions of Palestinians struggling to live on the very thin line of life-or-death under Israeli occupation in the refugee camps in front of the eyes of the world are also struggling with the destruction of the infrastructure that makes it nearly impossible to live under the bombings in Lebanon.

Due to the unceasing bombings at the expense of destruction of Palestine and Lebanon, more than 400 people lost their lives including defenseless children.

The screams of the Lebanese and Palestinian children should be answered and the Israeli terror and aggression must be stopped.

We the physicians, while defending the right of Israeli soldiers to live, do not see the Aggressive Israeli state’s attacks against the Palestinian and the Lebanese people in any way legitimate. As physicians this is the time to raise first our own voice then everybody’s and every organization’s reaction to these attacks in the loudest way possible.

We, the health professionals who have dedicated our lives to save the lives of others, and also as health care workers, are calling to be sensitive to the pain and suffering the Palestinian and Lebanese people have experienced; to eliminate violence from the Middle East and to build peace; to make our voices and demands heard both in our country and in the world;

We are calling first the United Nations, then the World Physicians Association, the Israeli Physicians Association and the world by sending this letter.
Turkish Physicians Association (TTB),
Istanbul Chamber of Physicians,
Istanbul Chamber of Dentists,
Istanbul Chamber of Pharmacists,
Istanbul Chamber of Veterinary Doctors,
The Union of Health Care Laborers Istanbul Branches

Letter

STOP THIS AGGRESSION!

Honorable Secretary,
We are the health workers in the neighboring coasts of Lebanon, Palestine and Israel. We want thousands of children to play with the waters every day, to look at the stars each night and to dream. The sky above us is the same for every one of us. Our languages are mixed, we dance the same way with our same songs. The henna in the palms of our women, the calluses on the hands of our men are the same. The birds that take off from one’s plaza are fed by the others. When one of us gets hurt, the other one feels the pain in her flesh. And these days, we are bleeding from one side.

Honorable Secretary,
Politicians could cite many reasons for war. They could mention the oil, money or land. But which one of these could persuade a child being awakened from a slumber by bombs? What reason could be hidden in the eyes of a mother who is shot while being forced to abandon her home and run? You know it very well, dear Secretary, the greatest fear a child will have is the fear of separation from her parents. How his heart will beat in a home where the door has been broken and the father taken away. The screams of a hungry baby echo within which numbers and dealings? Dear Secretary, every human being needs water; every mother to suckle her baby till he is fed; to walk freely on the streets of a town; to fall deep into a slumber at night. However, are you aware Honorable Secretary that the people are now hiding 7 layers deep under the ground to find a shelter?

Honorable Secretary,
In these parts of the world we do not go to bed while our neighbor is hungry. We do not take comfort while our neighbor’s house burns. There can not be anything human left in us if we are silent while humanity is being destroyed under the butt of a rifle, under the smell of gun powder. This is why we are calling on you. So that you can find a reason to give to the crying child. You must know that no reason you can come up with will be credible in the eyes of a child whose play pal has been murdered.

Honorable Secretary,
The same winds pollinate our flowers; the same seeds make the hot sands green. If there were no barbed wires or walls between them, the children will play hide and seek in the same game. The men will pour mortar to the same buildings; the women will sing the same lullaby. If those reasons you cite did not occasionally make bullets for the weapons, everybody would sit at the same table. For these reasons, dear Secretary, while the jets bomb the power plants, dams, roads and buildings, please do consider one more time what the ‘reason that justifies the war’ may be? But please do not forget that your reply will be heard by millions of children. On both sides of the border.

Honorable Secretary,
Stop this Israeli aggression supported by the USA. Put a block in front of the politicians, soldiers and war mongers. Please answer to the health care workers’ demands which defends life against death.

THE CENTRAL COUNCIL OF THE TURKISH PHYSICIANS ASSOCIATION.

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