With the joint efforts of the Association of Health Employees (SAMEDER) and the International Civil Society Support and Development Foundation (USİDER), a “health bridge” was established between Turkey and Azerbaijan. The project was also supported by Azerbaijan’s Doctors Union for Health (SNT).
Fifty SAMEDER members, including doctors and health workers, set up five areas in the city of Sumgayıt to screen Azerbaijanis for hepatitis B. Sumgayıt is home to a large number of internally displaced persons (IDP) who left the Nagorno-Karabakh region during the country’s conflict with Armenia.
A committee of Turkish deputies came from Ankara to Baku to supervise the activities. Parliamentary Health Commission head and Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Trabzon deputy Cevdet Erdöl, parliamentary Turkey-Azerbaijan Friendship Group head and AK Party Konya deputy Mustafa Kabakçı, AK Party İzmir deputy İbrahim Hasgür, AK Party Denizli deputy Mithat Ekici, AK Party Manisa deputy Mehmet Çerçi, USİDER General Coordinator Mehmet Sedat Fırat, USİDER board member Şule Yıldız, SAMEDER President Miktad Bozer, Gazi University Rector Rıza Ayhan, Gazi University School of Medicine Dean Peyami Cinaz and several academics were in attendance.
Public hopes for more screeningsNoting that the public at large appreciates health screenings and addressing this particular project, Erdöl said it is necessary to continue activities such as this in the future. Azerbaijani Health Ministry Foreign Affairs Department head Samir Abdullayev said joint work will help develop relations between the two brotherly countries. USİDER General Coordinator Fırat said it is pleasing to see the project being realized. “Patients need to be treated. I therefore see it is as beneficial to continue these kinds of activities,” Fırat said.
Speaking about the project, SAMEDER head Bozer said: “Blood sample reports will be shared with the Azerbaijani Ministry of Health and with other institutions. Our primary aim is to establish a ‘health bridge’ to further develop relations with our friend and brother country, Azerbaijan.”
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