Turkey’s Constitutional Court (AYM) has ruled to uphold a regulation that bans doctors and veterinarians who have served jail time for “offenses against the constitutional order” from working in private hospitals, the TR724 news website reported on Tuesday.
The ruling makes it practically impossible for doctors and veterinarians sentenced on political charges to practice their profession, as they are already banned from public service.
The decision sparked widespread criticism on social media platforms from human rights advocates, lawyers and doctors.
“The Constitutional Court has issued an unlawful decision that impacts thousands of professionals like me,” pediatrician and author Ahmet Karadağ said. “Banning doctors who were imprisoned on political charges from working in private hospitals is a clear breach of basic human rights.”
Following a failed coup on July 15, 2016, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. Many doctors and veterinarians were among over 150,000 public servants who were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.
Former public servants were not only fired from their jobs; they were also banned from working again in the public sector and getting a passport. The government also made it difficult for them to work formally in the private sector. Notes were put on the social security database about dismissed public servants to deter potential employers.
The ruling is expected to affect numerous healthcare professionals dismissed from public service under emergency decrees following the failed 2016 coup attempt in Turkey. Critics say the decision underscores a broader erosion of individual rights in the country.
