Türkiye will be global center of attraction in health industry: Erdoğan

KOCAELİ

The government is determined to turn Türkiye into a global center of attraction in health thanks to the continued investments, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, vowing to continue to build more hospitals and other facilities.

“Our citizens, wherever they reside in the world, prefer Türkiye for health services. In the same way, the attention of foreigners towards our country is on the rise,” Erdoğan said over the weekend as he inaugurated a new city hospital in the Marmara province of Kocaeli in the Marmara region.

Erdoğan, the joint presidential candidate of the ruling People’s Alliance, visited Kocaeli and inaugurated the new hospital, among other facilities. Erdoğan underlined that the government is continuing its investments in the health sector, not only for Turkish citizens but also for foreigners.

“Our people know very well the value of the infrastructure we are establishing, of the systematic reform and human power [in the field of health]. But the opposition continues to attack against all these steps through lies and slander,” Erdoğan stated.

The government had built important health facilities, particularly city hospitals in many cities over the recent years and it was proven how they were useful during the COVID-19 pandemic, Erdoğan recalled.

“We will build more city hospitals in all our big provinces. Next is in İzmir; we are planning to inaugurate it before the Eid al-Fitr,” he said.

Earthquake-hit region reviving

Recalling that Türkiye was hit by two major earthquakes in early February that killed more than 50,000 people in 11 provinces, Erdoğan said all these cities in the quake-hit area are in a process of reviving thanks to the power of the state, capacity of the state institutions and sacrifices made by the people.

“They think all this is happening on its own. They ignore the democratic and economic achievements Türkiye had in the past 21 years,” he stated, adding that his government has transformed the old Türkiye.

Criticizing the opposition-run municipalities in 11 big metropolitans, including Istanbul and Ankara, for doing nothing meaningful, Erdoğan said: “You have 10 to 11 municipalities. I wonder what they are doing. Is there anything they accomplished in Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir?”

The president also slammed the opposition alliance for allegedly allying with the terror organizations, such as the FETÖ and the PKK. “This is a rule of law. They claim they will release [Selahattin Demirtaş], a murderer of children. Will my people be with those who promise to release such a murderer?” he asked.

Demirtaş is the former co-chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and has been in prison since 2016 over links with the PKK and for being responsible for the death of scores of people in street protests in 2014.