NEWS CENTER - The 12th Turkish Medical World Congress and the Turkish Health Institutes Presidency (TÜSEB) Aziz Sancar Science, Service and Incentive Awards Ceremony were held in Istanbul with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
President Erdoğan, who started his speech here by thanking the healthcare professionals working in 81 provinces, stated that the entire healthcare army, from physicians to caregivers, from nurses to technicians, works day and night to ensure that the nation has access to quality healthcare services.
Reminding the poet Erdem Bayazıt's line "Our doctors are losing sleep from their white clothes", Erdoğan said, "Our doctors often make an effort to cure their problems by sacrificing the time they spend for themselves and their families, sleeping less and resting less when necessary. I would like to thank all our health workers who have contributed to our health services reaching today's levels." He also commemorated the doctors who lost their lives.
"PRODUCTIVE HEALTH APPROACH HAS STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE"
Referring to the importance of the congress and the Productive Health Business Forum held simultaneously, Erdoğan said the following in his speech:
I am honored to be with you at the 12th Turkish Medical World Congress and the 2026 TÜSEB Aziz Sancar Science, Service and Incentive Awards Ceremony. I would like to express my gratitude to all our guests who came to our program from different provinces, our geography of heart and all over the world, and I welcome you all to our beloved Istanbul and bring you joy. As you know, yesterday, we successfully held the 13th Heads of State and Government Summit of the Organization of Turkish States in Ankara. Previously, we celebrated our 29 October Republic Day with much more enthusiasm this year, with the presence of our distinguished guests from the Turkish states. Now, we are together with our brothers from the Turkish world on the occasion of another ceremony. I wholeheartedly congratulate our Ministry of Health and the Presidency of Turkish Health Institutes for successfully organizing this meaningful organization that keeps the pulse of medical science and bringing us together.
I send my greetings and love to every member of our health army, who works day and night in our 81 provinces, providing healing to the patients, and instilling hope and wisdom in the relatives of the patients. Our doctors, nurses, caregivers, technicians; In other words, almost all of our healthcare professionals work at a really high tempo, working devotedly day and night to ensure that our nation can quickly access quality healthcare services.
Our doctors, who, in the late Erdem Bayazıt's succinct words, are "sleeping off their white clothes", often make efforts to cure their problems by sacrificing the time they spend for themselves and their families, sleeping less and resting when necessary. On this occasion, those who have contributed to our health services reaching today's levels, whether in the public or private sector; Today, I would like to thank once again all our brothers and teachers who contribute to the construction of a healthier Türkiye with their efforts, efforts and diligence. I also remember with mercy all our doctors who brought new works and new horizons to health sciences and touched the lives of our patients, but who are not with us today.
HEALTHY Türkiye CENTURY VISION
I would like to express this first and foremost: It is very, very valuable for all stakeholders of the medical world to meet around the same table and consult on the same issues. In this sense, I hope that the scientific sessions held for 3 days were productive and that the ideas that come out of these sessions will be beneficial for our health community, our nation, the Turkish world and all humanity. I see the 12th Congress, planned in line with the vision of the Healthy Türkiye Century and centered on the "Productive Health" approach, as a highly strategic meeting for the evaluation of new road maps. Likewise, I believe that the Productive Health Business Forum, which brings together the pharmaceutical, vaccine and medical device sectors with the academy and business world, will open the door to new investment moves. I congratulate our scientists and companies, whose awards we will soon present in different categories, and thank them for their contributions to both the medical literature and the health sector.
Today, our valuable teacher, Mr. Aziz Sancar, whose achievements we are proud of as a nation, is among us. I would like to share with you the words of the late Professor Doctor Muzaffer Aksoy, whom our teacher Aziz Sancar spoke highly of, saying "I learned how to do science from him." We can clearly see how we look at medicine and how important our physicians are for humanity in the following sentences of our teacher Muzaffer Aksoy, one of the most important scientists our country has produced; Medicine is such a branch of science that its subject is to relieve human material and spiritual suffering and find a cure for it. In order to approach and even achieve this noble goal of medicine, his sons, doctors, worked not only with their minds but also at the expense of their lives; For this cause, they gave martyrs who are as worthy of being sanctified as those who died for the homeland and freedom. But they did not give up on this path, which was both noble and dangerous.
Thousands of heroes of this quality shook their hammers, kneaded with intelligence, reason, determination and will, for hundreds of years for this cause. They created medical science, one of the astonishing products of human intelligence. Do you want examples of suffering humanity's gratitude and gratitude to him? Go and listen to the mother who has just been suffering from the most painful agony and pain. Go and listen to him explain his feelings in primitive but heartfelt words to the village doctor who saved his child with his serum. Go and listen to the words of the son who feels the greatest happiness when he sees his father, whom he left half dead on the operating table half an hour ago, come back to life with the operator's surgery.
Yes; Medicine and medicine are of such vital importance to us. First of all, our belief values are based on living and keeping alive. Giving life water to a sapling, treating a sparrow with a broken wing with compassion, providing healing and tranquility not only to the body but also to the soul constitute the essence of our history and identity.
