The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) has released a statement on Jan. 18, calling on the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) health and family ministers to resign after it was released that the officials did unlawfully not inform the judicial authorities regarding the case of 115 pregnant children under 18 at a hospital in İstanbul.
An employee at a state hospital in İstanbul’s Küçükçekmece district detected that the hospital administration did not inform the police regarding the list of 115 pregnant children, 39 Syrian refugees and 38 under the age of 15, and thus applied to prosecution office.
TKP: THE AKP GOVERNMENT IS THE PRIMARY RESPONSIBLE
The TKP has released a statement regarding the recent scandal, calling the health and family ministers to resign since the officials neglected and misconducted their duties considering that the Turkish law says that the cases of pregnant children under the age of 18 must be informed to the police for judicial procedures.
"The primary responsible for this scandal is, of course, the AKP government that encourages child marriage," the TKP says, adding that not surprisingly the ministry of health did not inform the judicial authorities about the case of 115 pregnant children in 5 months while the İstanbul governorate also did not allow launching an investigation to inspect the hospital administration.
The TKP underlines that all the governmental institutions play role in such scandals, given the fact that the country’s Religious Affairs Directorate gives fatwas saying "9-year-old children can marry", the education ministry distributes paedophilic school books, and a minister said "one-time occurrence of an instance cannot be a reason to smear our institute" advocating the pro-government Ensar foundation where dozens of children were exposed to systematic rape and sexual abuse in 2016.
"All the responsible individuals, particularly the Ministers of Health and Family, must resign since they did not prevent the abuse of dozens of children and took party in this crime as they tolerated the incident when the case was not informed," the TKP adds regarding the recent case of pregnant children.
The TKP points out that the recent scandal has revealed one more time that all the official and institutional elements of this capitalist order are devoid of the capability of eliminating such scandals. The party has called the working people to protect the children and settle the account with these crimes and authorities.
Emphasizing that as this capitalist order continues, similar incidents and scandals will emerge all the time, the TKP concludes, "Our children are our future, our future are in our hands", calling on the workers to get organized against the AKP rule.
HEALTH MINISTRY LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION ONLY AFTER PUBLIC PRESSURE
As the incident has been reflected on Turkish media and sparked an uproar among the citizens, the Ministry of Health has made a declaration.
"When pregnant individuals under the age of 18 without civil marriage apply to state health institutions, all those who are under the age of 15 (whether with their consent or not), and if those who are over the age of 15 are exposed to violence and force or threat, the case is proceeded to the information of judicial authorities," the health ministry says.
"Considering the delicacy of the matter, our Ministry has ordered to re-examine and investigate the case and thus appointed an inspector," the ministry adds, confessing that the governorate did not fulfil its duty in not investigating the case of pregnant children for judicial authorities, and that the ministry has launched the investigation upon the public pressure.
Meanwhile, soL News talked to an employee working at the hospital, of which administrating did not inform the authorities on the list of pregnant children, saying that the hospital administration monitors their phone calls and threaten to sack them if they “leak” any information regarding the incident.
