Health ministry to meet with Turkish coronavirus researcher sacked with emergency decree

Hacı Bişkin / DUVAR

Turkish Health Ministry is set to meet with a coronavirus researcher who was sacked with a state of emergency decree, as the number of cases continue to increase in the country.

Sacked by emergency decree, Turkish coronavirus researcher excluded from fight against pandemic

Mustafa Ulaşlı was a lecturer in University of Gaziantep when he was sacked with a state of emergency decree on Sept. 1, 2016.

Thousands of public employees were dismissed from their posts with state of emergency decrees issued during the emergency rule declared after the July 15, 2016 attempted takeover, with the government saying that the aim is to rid the institutions of followers of the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen.

Prior to returning to Turkey to resume his studies, Ulaşlı had already spent a decade conducting research on the coronavirus, both at Princeton University between 2003 and 2007 and at Groningen University in the Netherlands from 2007 to 2011.

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Ömer Faruk Gergelioğlu said that he talked to Health Minister Fahrettin Koca over the phone on Ulaşlı's situation, asking him to be reinstated to his post.

Sn. @drfahrettinkoca ile görüştüm. Corona konusunda aşı üretebilecek KHKlı Doç.Mustafa Ulaşlı'nın,atıl durumda olan binlerce KHKlı, güvenlik sorşt. için aylardır bekleyen sağlık emekçisinin hizmet vermesi gerektiğini hatırlattım. Ulaşlı'yla görüşülecek,diğer konuların da farkında

— Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu (@gergerliogluof) March 21, 2020

"The minister told me that Ulaşlı will be contacted on Monday [March 23]," Gergerlioğlu told Duvar, adding that they also discussed the situation of some 15,000 health workers sacked with decrees.

"I have received positive signals from the minister in our talks. Regarding the reinstatement of 15,000 health workers, the minister didn't say that they will be reinstated, but spoke in a positive manner," he also said.