Chief physician in eastern Turkey removed after revealing prostitution ring

SİİRT

A chief physician in the eastern Turkish province of Siirt has said she was removed from her post after she reported a local prostitution ring that abuses university students.

“If they had not removed me, I would have resigned anyway because of the social pressure,” said Şeyda Kayhan, as quoted by daily Habertürk on July 4.

Kayhan, an anesthetist, was appointed as the first woman chief physician of Siirt State Hospital on March 1.

“One of the first things I did was take over the hospital’s physiotherapy department with our own staff, saving the state 450,000 Turkish Liras each month, which had previously been paid to a subcontractor,” she said, claiming this move “disturbed” some influential people in the city.

“They started to put pressure on me, but I did not step back,” said the chief physician.

When Kayhan reported the local prostitution ring, which involved four people from her hospital, it was the last straw.

“I felt pity when I heard about some poor students from Siirt University who had been forced into prostitution. I reported it to the police. Then, locals started to complain about me, as if I was the criminal,” she said.

“They asked why I had revealed the ring during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan and said it had been a bad move for the image of Siirt,” said Kayhan.

According to the report, Kayhan was recently removed from her post in Siirt and transferred to another hospital in the western Turkish province of Aydın.

“I am disappointed. It is not easy to break taboos,” she reportedly said.