31.10.2026 15:10
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made important statements at the 12th Turkish Medical World Congress and TÜSEB Aziz Sancar Science, Service and Incentive Awards Ceremony held in Istanbul. Drawing attention to Turkey's domestic production capacity in health technologies, Erdoğan announced that ventilators produced in Batman were exported to 45 countries, and automated shock devices developed in cooperation with ASELSAN were exported to 16 countries.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke at the 12th Turkish Medical World Congress and the TÜSEB Aziz Sancar Science, Service and Incentive Awards Ceremony held in Istanbul.
Referring to the domestic technologies Türkiye has developed in the field of health, Erdoğan stated that the medical devices produced are both used in hospitals in Türkiye and exported to various countries around the world.
“WE ARE EXPORTING OUR DOMESTIC HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES TO THE WORLD”
Drawing attention to the importance of domestic production in health technologies, President Erdoğan announced that ventilators produced in Batman are exported to 45 countries.
Erdoğan said the following:
“We use our ventilators produced in Batman in our hospitals and export them to 45 countries. ”
AUTOMATED SHOCK DEVICES ARE BEING SENT TO 16 COUNTRIES
Also referring to the automated shock devices developed in cooperation between the Ministry of Health and ASELSAN, Erdoğan said that the devices in question are sent to 16 countries.
Stating that mobile digital X-ray devices have also begun to be used in public hospitals, Erdoğan spoke as follows:
“We send our automated shock devices, developed by our Ministry of Health in cooperation with Aselsan, to 16 countries, and we present our mobile digital X-ray devices to the service of our citizens in our public hospitals. ”
HEART-LUNG MACHINE DEVELOPED WITH DOMESTIC FACILITIES
President Erdoğan stated that one of the health technologies Türkiye developed with its own resources is the heart-lung machine.
Erdoğan said, “We developed the heart-lung machine with our own resources and made it available for use. ”
“THE PRODUCING HEALTH APPROACH HAS STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE”
Emphasizing the importance of the Congress and the concurrently organized Producing Health Business Forum, Erdoğan noted the following in his speech;
I am experiencing the happiness of being with you at the 12th Turkish Medical World Congress held this year and the 2026 TÜSEB Aziz Sancar Science, Service and Incentive Awards Ceremony. I offer my gratitude to all our guests who honored our program from different provinces, our geography of hearts, and all corners of the world, and I say welcome to our beloved Istanbul; you have brought joy. Yesterday, as you know, we successfully held the 13th Summit of Heads of State and Government of our Organization of Turkic States in Ankara. Before that, we celebrated our 29 October Republic Day this year much more enthusiastically with the participation of distinguished guests from Turkic states. Now, on the occasion of another ceremony, we are together with our brothers and sisters from the Turkic world. I sincerely congratulate our Ministry of Health and our Presidency of the Health Institutes of Türkiye, who organized this meaningful event, which takes the pulse of medical science, successfully and brought us together.
“OUR HEALTH WORKERS WORK SELFLESSLY DAY AND NIGHT”
On your behalf, I send my greetings and love to every member of our health army who works day and night in our 81 provinces, distributes healing to patients, and instills hope and fortitude in patients' relatives. Our physicians, nurses, caregivers, and technicians; in other words, almost all of our health workers truly perform their duties at a high tempo and work selflessly, without distinguishing day from night, so that our nation can quickly access quality health services.
In the concise words of the late Erdem Bayazıt, “sleep pours from their white garments,” our physicians often sacrifice the time they would devote to themselves and their families, and when necessary sleep less and rest less, striving to be a remedy for troubles. On this occasion, I once again thank all our brothers and sisters and all our teachers who have a share in bringing our health services to today's level, whether in the public or private sector, and who contribute with their labor, efforts, and diligence to building a healthier Türkiye. I also remember with mercy all our physicians who brought new works and new horizons to the health sciences and touched the lives of our patients but are not among us today.
“STAKEHOLDERS OF THE MEDICAL WORLD WILL MEET AROUND THE SAME TABLE”
First and especially, I want to state this: it is very, very valuable for all stakeholders of the medical world to meet around the same table and hold consultations on the same issues. In this sense, I hope that the scientific sessions held over 3 days have been productive, and that the ideas that emerge from them will be auspicious for our health community, our nation, the Turkic world, and all humanity. I see the 12th Congress, planned in line with the vision of the Healthy Türkiye Century and centered on the “Producing Health” approach, as an extremely strategic meeting for evaluating new road maps. Likewise, I believe that the Producing Health Business Forum, which brings together the pharmaceutical, vaccine, and medical device sectors with academia and the business world, will open the door to new investment moves. I congratulate our scientists and companies whose awards I will present in different categories shortly, and I thank them for their contributions to both the medical literature and the health sector.
Our esteemed teacher Mr. Aziz Sancar, whose achievements we proudly celebrate as a nation today, is also among us. I would like to share with you here the following words of the late Professor Doctor Muzaffer Aksoy, about whom our teacher Aziz Sancar speaks with praise, saying, “I learned to do science from him.” We can see very clearly in the following sentences of our teacher Muzaffer Aksoy, one of the most important scientists our country has raised, how we view medicine and how important our physicians are for humanity; Medicine is such a branch of science that its subject is to relieve people's material and spiritual suffering and to find a remedy for them. In order to approach and even attain this noble purpose of medicine, doctors, its children, worked not only with their minds but at the cost of their lives; in this cause, they gave martyrs worthy of being blessed as much as those who died for the homeland and freedom. But they did not give up this path, which is as noble as it is very dangerous.
“MEDICINE AND PHYSICIANSHIP HAVE VITAL IMPORTANCE”
Indeed, thousands of heroes of this caliber swung their hammers, kneaded for hundreds of years from intelligence, reason, determination, and will, in this cause. They created the science of medicine, one of the astonishing products of human intelligence. Do you want examples of suffering humanity's gratitude and thankfulness to it? Go and listen to the mother who was just writhing from the most agonizing of pains and aches. Go and listen to the village physician who saved his child with serum, as he expresses his feelings in primitive but heartfelt words. Go and listen to the words of the son who, seeing that his father—whom he had left half-dead on the operating table half an hour earlier—has come back to life thanks to the surgeon's operation, is experiencing the highest of felicities.
Yes; medicine and physicianship have just this much vital importance for us. Above all, our faith values are founded on living and keeping alive. Giving life-giving water to a sapling, compassionately treating a sparrow with a broken wing, and providing healing and tranquility not only to the body but also to the soul constitute the essence of our history and identity.
To regard the killing of one person as the killing of all humanity, and the keeping alive of one person as the keeping alive of all humanity, is the foundation of faith and belief of our healing civilization.
"WE ARE A NATION THAT HAS SHED LIGHT ON HUMANITY SINCE THE 13TH CENTURY"
My esteemed professors, when we look at our history, we encounter countless examples that are symbols of this healing civilization that is unique to us. As you know, since the 13th century we have been a nation that has shed light on Anatolia and humanity through both our physicians and our hospitals. The Gevher Nesibe Hatun Hospital in Kayseri, built during the Seljuk period, the İzzettin Keykavus Hospital in Sivas, and the Gökmedrese in Tokat, which we restored and put back into service last year after completing its restoration, are some of these. Likewise, the Edirne, Bursa, Fatih, Haseki Sultan, and Atik Valide hospitals that the Ottomans brought to life through foundations, and many more, are touchstones showing how we approach the issue of health. I would especially like to draw your attention here: in all of them, health services were provided free of charge, that is, at no cost. The relatives of patients were also accommodated free of charge in guesthouses called tabhanes. Students, meanwhile, studied the science of medicine in both its theoretical and practical dimensions.
Ibn Sina’s accumulated knowledge was enriched over the centuries in the Turkish-Islamic geography with Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu, Altuncuzade, Şeyh Salih, Hekimbaşı Ahi Mehmed Çelebi, and many other names, and was exported from here to the world. Hippocrates’ saying, "Where there is love of medicine, there is love of humanity," came to life in Sheikh Edebali’s maxim, "Keep people alive so that the state may live."
"OUR INSTITUTIONS HAVE RAISED WORLD-RENOWNED PHYSICIANS"
This is also very important: while patients with psychiatric disorders in Europe were burned alive, in the bimarhanes here patients were treated with musical modes, the sounds of water, and aromatherapy, among other methods. From the 19th century onward, Mekteb-i Tıbbiye-i Şahane and our other educational institutions raised world-renowned physicians. With the Republic, this accumulated knowledge in medicine was further developed and reinforced with the contributions of our universities and professors. I would also like to bring the following to your attention: in medicine, knowledge, skill, talent, and ability are undoubtedly important. However, in our tradition all of these are also equipped with the ethics of physicianship. A physician has been expected to understand the patient’s condition, to possess conscience and responsibility, and to look upon the patient and life with a mature perspective. In other words, the rules and norms that are today called medical ethics have already been treated in our tradition as qualities that a physician must possess.
Thank God, today too our scientists continue to carry out highly qualified, so to speak, groundbreaking work. Indeed, the professors and institutions to whom we will shortly present the TÜSEB awards are carrying out very important work in different fields. From this perspective, I consider it very valuable that our past successes are continued with new inventions and new works. I have no doubt that our young people, taking you as an example, will, God willing, achieve even greater things in the future.
"REVOLUTIONARY DEVELOPMENTS ARE TAKING PLACE IN MEDICINE"
I am actually stating these truths, which you know very well, for this reason: today, as in other fields, revolutionary developments are taking place in medicine. In particular, with the introduction of artificial intelligence and digital technologies, significant gains are being achieved at every stage of the process, from research and development activities to production methods. Surgical operations are now performed with the help of machines from hundreds of kilometers away, and patients’ conditions are monitored remotely. The main issue we need to focus on here is being able to shape the course of developments, beyond merely adapting to these innovations. It is being able to constantly pursue the better through the products and projects we develop and the scientific research we conduct.
"WE NOW PRODUCE OUR OWN MEDICAL DEVICES AND EQUIPMENT"
As the state and government, we have been fighting for this for 24 years. We are making intensive efforts to strengthen our healthcare infrastructure through our investments, support, and incentives. In particular, with the domestic production model in healthcare, we now produce our medical devices and equipment ourselves instead of purchasing them from abroad. We both use in our hospitals and export to 45 countries the ventilators we produce with our own resources in Batman. We send our automated shock devices, developed by our Ministry of Health in cooperation with ASELSAN, to 16 countries, and we offer our mobile digital X-ray devices to the service of our citizens in our public hospitals. We have developed and put into use the heart-lung machine, which very few countries in the world can produce, entirely with our own resources. We have begun using in our clinics our domestic intensive care monitors equipped with advanced technology and supported by artificial intelligence.
We produce and successfully apply CAR-T cell therapies and production technology, which are the pinnacle of personalized treatment in the fight against cancer, with our own engineering capabilities. Now our goal is to develop our own ultrasound device. God willing, by the end of the next two years we will produce 700 ultrasound devices annually, with a domestic content rate of at least 71 percent. In the supply of medical devices, too, we are now giving more weight to domestic products. In the last year, we have increased the domestic content rate in public procurement by 7 points. We see all of these as just a beginning. God willing, we will do much better and much more efficient work.
"WE WILL MAKE OUR HEALTHCARE ARCHITECTURE MORE RESILIENT"
We will make our healthcare architecture, with all its components, much more efficient, higher quality, and more resilient. Just as we wrote an epic in the defense industry, we will achieve the same successes in the healthcare sector. In this process, we will eliminate our shortcomings, if any. If there are any oversights on our part, we will make up for them. With your strong support, we will continue to play for the top in healthcare. I say, may God be our helper and supporter. With these thoughts, I wish that the 12th Turkish Medical World Congress will once again be a means of good. I once again congratulate our award recipients. I offer my gratitude to all my brothers and sisters participating in the program, to all my professors, and to all our guests.
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