Hundreds of Syrian cancer patients protest near the Bab al-Hawa border crossing between Syria and Turkey. They demand from Erdogan to allow their entry for medical treatment in Turkey. The demonstration, organized by social activists with media support, includes cancer patients who sleep in tents near the border. The organizers of the demonstration are trying to put pressure on Erdogan, so that he will allow them to enter and receive radiation and chemotherapy treatment, by appealing to the international community. As part of the protest and awareness campaign, young people express solidarity with the cancer patients by shaving their heads.
#Syria
Cancer patients continue to sit-in at Bab al-Hawa border crossing for the second day in a row.
Photography: Ali Aliwi#Syrian _ Press _ Agency #SPA pic.twitter.com/3Rikms1zlG– Syrian Press Agency – Syrian Press Agency (@Sy_press_agency) July 23, 2023
A local official in northern Syria told the media that the events accompanying a media campaign to mobilize public opinion are intended to allow the urgent admission of 608 patients out of 3,100 cancer patients located on the Syrian-Turkish border, to enable them to receive radiation treatments and chemotherapy. The campaign includes the slogan “Cancer does not wait”, and tries to present the plight of cancer patients on social networks as well.
An open sit-in for cancer patients near the Bab al-Hawa crossing.
To demand the admission of cancer patients to Turkish territory to receive the necessary treatment.
More than 3 thousand injured, including more than 600 patients, need urgent admission before it is too late, because cancer does not wait.#Save _ cancer patients#Cancer _ does _ not _ wait pic.twitter.com/9uMkrzN6no
— Mohammed Aldmahki (@KalhaaS44326) July 23, 2023
Media in Syria reported that patients who had a temporary protection card before the earthquake that hit the region are taking advantage of the authorization to enter Turkey and receive treatment in hospitals. The others, as well as those who do not have a special transit permit issued for aid after the earthquake, were not allowed to enter the country and remained unanswered.
Fatima, the mother of a cancer patient, told about her son’s need to be hospitalized in Turkish hospitals, as a result of the lack of treatment options in Syrian hospitals. “It hurts me more than him. In addition to the pain of cancer, we suffer from oppression and confiscation. We have no way but to pray and appeal to the cancer patients in the world who understand us, so that they will do something for us.”
The number of cancer cases registered in northern Syria, according to the “Idlib Health Directorate”, reaches 3,000 patients, 65 percent of whom are women and children, half of whom receive treatment in hospitals in areas freed from Bashar Assad’s rule that are operated, among other things, by the Turks.
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