Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Meral Danış Bektaş has said her brother, a doctor of internal medicine, was removed from his job by a government decree because he is Bektaş’s brother, the gazeteduvar news website reported.
Speaking in Parliament on Thursday about controversial government decrees that have been issued by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) during an ongoing state of emergency that was declared in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt in July 2016, Bektaş said: “I don’t want to say this, but I have to. My brother, an associate professor, a nephrologist, was removed from his job. I was able to access his dossier thanks to AKP deputies. There is only one note next to his name: ‘He is the brother of HDP deputy Meral Danış Bektaş.’”
More than 150,000 people have been removed from civil service jobs through government decrees in a massive purge launched by the AKP government under the pretext of an anti-coup fight.
Bektaş said she is a deputy elected to Parliament by the people of Turkey and that she is not a criminal.
“I don’t like to give an example from my family, but thousands of people [like my brother] have been removed from their jobs. This is simply tyranny. This is simply fascism,” she said.
Bektaş’s brother, Associate Professor Ramazan Danış, told gazeteduvar that he was removed from his job at a public hospital in Diyarbakır by a government decree issued on Oct. 29, 2016 and that neither an investigation nor a case had been launched against him.
Danış said he is also sure he was fired for being the brother of an HDP deputy but added that he is proud to be Bektaş’s brother.
“Meral is a source of pride for me. She is a really good human rights and women’s rights activist,” said the brother, adding that he was actually sorry for his patients.
