Turks were horrified to discover details of the newborn baby gang scandal after the horrific news came to light in mid-October. It refers to a network active in some 20 public and private hospitals in Istanbul and Tekirdağ, in the western Thrace region. Some 40 caregivers – doctors, nurses and stretcher-bearers – have been accused of trafficking infants in order to extort as much money as possible from the Turkish social security system and families. At least 10 infants are believed to have died in the process. The media coverage of the case has led to new cases and the death toll could rise.
With the complicity of 112 emergency operators, the doctors involved presented false diagnoses to families in distress, justifying the transfer of newborns to neonatal units in private hospitals. Keeping children in intensive care earned the network 8,000 Turkish lira a day (around €216). The first testimonies have highlighted practices motivated by the lure of profit, at odds with the Hippocratic oath.
“After his birth, my son was in intensive care for 10 days. Unfortunately, he died. Since then, I’ve always wondered if there had been negligence. Was my son, whom I thought for years had died of natural causes, the victim of murder? Who will soothe my pain?” said Burcu Gökdeniz, a mother who was a victim of the gang, in a message on her X account alongside a photo of herself in tears with a purplish-hued baby in her arms.
On March 27, 2023, the existence of this network was reported to the authorities in a message posted on the CIMER interface – a government site where citizens can directly ask questions or report wrongdoing – and justified the launch of an investigation. The report by the Ministry of Health inspectorate listed 47 defendants, 22 of whom have been arrested. In the 1,400-page indictment dated October 17, the main protagonists in the case – doctors Firat Sari and Ilker Gönen – were charged with wilful negligent homicide, insider trading, setting up a criminal organization and falsifying official documents. They face up to 582 years and nine months in prison.
‘Lack of control’
The scale of the scandal has prompted reactions from politicians of all stripes. “The first complaint was filed in May 2023. Nothing happened between May 2023 and October 2024. The gang had access to all the information they needed to threaten the prosecutor who led the investigation. Murderers are circulating freely among us,” said Ozgür Ozel, president of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the main opposition movement, criticizing the course of the proceedings. He also called on the authorities to nationalize the hospitals involved in the case.
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