AP Exclusive: Doctors in Turkey describe police assaults, govt harassment over summer protests

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FILE – In this June 2013 file photo, a doctor helps a demonstrator affected with pepper gas during clashes with riot police near Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey. During the height of Turkey’s summer of upheaval, more than a dozen Turkish doctors interviewed by The Associated Press say authorities assaulted them with tear gas, pressured them to reveal the names of patients and ignored calls for resources. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)The Associated Press

FILE – In this May 31, 2013, file photo, volunteer Turkish doctors help a demonstrator afftected with pepper gas during clashes with riot police near Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey. During the height of Turkey’s summer of upheaval, more than a dozen Turkish doctors interviewed by The Associated Press say authorities assaulted them with tear gas, pressured them to reveal the names of patients and ignored calls for resources. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)The Associated Press

Protester affected by teargas

FILE – In this June 11, 2013, file photo, a protester affected by tear gas is helped by other protesters to a field hospital in Gezi Park inTaksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey. During the height of Turkey’s summer of upheaval, more than a dozen Turkish doctors interviewed by The Associated Press say authorities assaulted them with tear gas, pressured them to reveal the names of patients and ignored calls for resources. (AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis, File)The Associated Press

Riot police gas canisters

FILE – In this May 31, 2013, file photo, riot police use tear gas and pressurized water to quash a peaceful demonstration by hundreds of people staging a sit-in protest to try and prevent the demolition of trees at Gezi Park in Istanbul, Turkey. During the height of Turkey’s summer of upheaval, more than a dozen Turkish doctors interviewed by The Associated Press say authorities assaulted them with tear gas, pressured them to reveal the names of patients and ignored calls for resources. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)The Associated Press

FILE – In this June 8, 2013, file photo, Turkish protesters, mostly soccer fans of Besiktas who call themselves “Carsi” wave a poster of Turkey’s founder Kemal Ataturk as they celebrate in rain at the city’s Kugulu Park in Ankara, Turkey. It was the height of Turkey’s summer of upheaval, and riot police were hammering protesters. The tear gas at Istanbul’s Taksim Square was so thick that doctors trying to treat the wounded in a makeshift clinic could barely breathe or see. So a group of them, all wearing white lab coats, set off to find relief in a nearby hospital. They turned into an alley and came face-to-face with police, just yards away. The officers took aim, lifted their guns and launched tear gas canisters straight at the medics.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici, File)The Associated Press

ISTANBUL – More than a dozen Turkish doctors interviewed by The Associated Press say that during summer protests authorities assaulted them with tear gas, pressured them to reveal the names of patients and ignored calls for resources.

Dr. Selcuk Atalay, the general secretary of the Turkish Medical Association’s Ankara chapter, says “something happened during the protests in June that usually doesn’t happen in war.”

An indictment signed last month against a doctor and a medical student, seen by the AP, contradicts a government statement that it would take no action against medical personnel giving care to protesters. Critics say a bill passed last week could give authorities new powers to prosecute doctors for unauthorized care.

The Ministry of Health says claims of shortfalls in health services are “greatly unfair.”

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