Ekrem Karakaya was a cardiology specialist at City Hospital in Konya province. On July 6, he was shot by the son of a former patient. The killer, Hacı Mehmet Akçay, shot himself after committing the crime. Despite attempts to save Karakaya’s life, he died, leaving behind a devastated family. He has become the most recent and brazen example of the ongoing violence toward healthcare workers in Turkey. On July 7, healthcare workers went on a two-day country-wide strike condemning the violence and demanding the resignation of Fahrettin Koca, the Minister of Health. During Karakaya’s funeral, attendees appeared to boo at the minister. In a statement shared via Twitter, the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) — an independent medical and health professionals association — said they were deeply saddened by the loss of a colleague, repeating their calls to end an environment of violence against healthcare practitioners. Konya Şehir Hastanesi'nde görev yapan meslektaşımız Dr. Ekrem Karakaya'yı kaybetmenin derin üzüntüsü içindeyiz. Tüm uyarılarımıza rağmen şiddet ortamına dur diyecek, şiddeti engelleyecek önlemleri almayan sorumluları da affetmeyeceğiz! 📢 #SağlıktaŞiddetSonaErsin — Türk Tabipleri Birliği (@ttborgtr) July 6, 2022 We are deeply saddened by the loss of out colleague, Dr. Ekrem Karakaya who worked at the Konya City Hospital. We will not forgive those responsible who have failed to take measures to prevent violence despite all of our warnings. There have been ongoing strikes and marches since October last year about unfair conditions in Turkey’s medical fields. In an interview with Balkan Insight, Vedat Bulut, a professor of medicine and board member of the Turkish Medical Association said the number of cases where medical workers face violence continues to grow. As a result, “medical doctors are resigning for better jobs in the private sector and also jobs abroad. We told the Turkish Ministry of Health that incentives and better policies should be implemented to halt the trend, but nothing has been done,” said Bulut. The overall number of doctors physically and verbally assaulted in the last eleven years is well over 100,000. Then in March, as Turkey marked Medicine Day, also known as Doctors Day on March 14, health workers across the country said they would be on a two-day strike repeating their grievances and calling for better policies concerning the healthcare industry. At the time, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed gratitude to health care employees and promised to raise wages and address cases of reported violence. On March 17, a bill proposed by the government failed to meet their expectations. Instead of investigating the root cause of the problem, the government suggested creating a “Professional Responsibility Board within the Ministry of Health which would oversee all healthcare workers.” But according to the medical association, the proposed board did not have enough representatives from the medical field and resembled the one-man structure that would restrict the independence of healthcare workers. In a statement, the Turkish Medical Association said that in order to combat violence effectively, the government must consider recommendations put forward by the association. “Arrangements made without analyzing the causes of violence in health, which have increased significantly with the bottleneck in the health system and the deepening economic crisis, will not offer us any solution,” read the statement. On July 7, as healthcare workers marched demanding justice, they were met with police violence. İstanbul'da Çapa Tıp Fakültesi'nden il sağlık müdürlüğüne yapacağımız yürüyüşe üst üste polis saldırıları yaşanıyor. Emniyet güçlerini uyarıyoruz: Suç işliyorsunuz! Yasımızın, öfkemizin önünde durmayın; barikatları kaldırın! 📢 #YaşamakİçinGöREVdeyiz pic.twitter.com/9nPjdPSCXw — Türk Tabipleri Birliği (@ttborgtr) July 7, 2022 We are experiencing multiple police attacks during the march from Capa Medical Faculty towards the provincial health directorate. We are warning the law enforcement. You are committing a crime. Don't stand before our mourning, our anger; remove the barricades! Journalists covering the march were battered too. Journalists were once again violently prevented from doing their jobs, battered and threatened while trying the cover the doctors’ protest after their colleague #EkremKarakaya was murdered. Photo: @firatfstk https://t.co/4nhfPw5aUB pic.twitter.com/k97vNxABNX — MLSA (@mlsaturkey) July 7, 2022 The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), Turkey’s media watchdog, imposed a broadcast ban on the news about the murder of Karakaya. Konya Şehir Hastanesi’nde meydana gelen silahlı saldırı olayına ilişkin Konya 5.