Icon: enlarge
Mask requirement in Istanbul: Since the end of July, the Turkish government has not mentioned asymptomatic corona infections in the public statistics
Photo: Emrah Gurel / dpa
Kayıhan Pala is an experienced doctor.
He teaches students, worked as a health advisor and headed the medical association in the Turkish province of Bursa for several years.
His medical advice is important - so much so that the Turkish Medical Association has appointed him to a group of doctors to monitor the pandemic in Turkey.
However, an interview with a local news site on the subject of Corona then put the doctor in distress.
"Infections and deaths in Bursa are higher than announced," Pala told enBursa.com in a conversation published April 20.
The governor of Bursa saw this statement as an attempt to spread false information and accused Pala of panicking the population.
As a consequence, the AKP politician filed a complaint.
After an initial assessment, the public prosecutor decided that the case should be resolved out of court.
The file was sent to Uludag University, which then opened an investigation against its professor.
Then months passed.
Months in which the Turkish government imposed and lifted curfews, issued strict corona measures and eased them again and the statistics of the infections gave hope that the pandemic had been brought under control.
Parallel to the positive news from the official side, however, doubts about the Turkish government's corona numbers grew - and the warnings became increasingly louder.
Just like Professor Pala, numerous doctors and medical staff from all parts of the country soon suspected that the statistics were embellished and the true extent of the pandemic was being concealed.
There was talk of infection rates up to 19 times higher than those shown in the official statistics.
The government vehemently opposed this, and legal consequences were repeatedly threatened.
In September, however, there was increasing evidence that the numbers had really been manipulated.
350,000 cases withheld
The month started with good news for Professor Pala.
After the lengthy investigation against him, Uludag University came to the conclusion on September 1 that Pala had only fulfilled his duty by pointing out higher numbers of infections.
For doctors, nurses and other medical workers, however, September was a dark month.
After weeks of warnings that the pandemic would get out of control, the medical association no longer knew what to do in the middle of the month and started a campaign that amounted to a cry for help.
Under the motto "You cannot manage it, and we will burn out", there were protests in which the medics urged the government to implement stricter corona measures.
The best argument for this was finally presented by the CHP MP Murat Emir at the end of September.
The politician revealed a document that there were 29,377 positive corona tests in Turkey on September 10.
In the statistics of the Ministry of Health, 1512 cases were given for that day.
Under pressure from the opposition, the government finally had to admit that the numbers had been embellished.
According to estimates by the Medical Association, the government has concealed around 350,000 infections in the past few months.
Counting patients instead of infections
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said that on July 29th, the number of patients and no longer the number of infections began to be published.
Infected with asymptomatic disease courses who did not have to be treated because of their Covid 19 disease fell under the table.
The non-party Koca gave the reason for his action that the protection of "national interests" was just as important as the protection of health for the population.
The opposition suspects that the numbers have been embellished in order to spare the already ailing economy from new corona restrictions.
Now, however, the numbers game could damage Turkey significantly.
The British government has already reacted to the Turkish admission and introduced a 14-day quarantine for all travelers from Turkey.
The country is one of the most popular travel destinations for the British, and the new regulations are likely to deter many holidaymakers.
It remains to be seen whether Germany will also adjust its travel warnings.
Foreign Office takes the reports "very seriously"
The Federal Republic of Germany is currently exempting four southern Turkish holiday areas from the Corona travel warning for the country.
Health Minister Koca has now announced that all corona cases will be made public this week.
From the Foreign Office it is said that they are closely following the development of the situation in Turkey and that they are taking the relevant reports "very seriously".
While people at home and abroad are waiting for the new, correct statistics, doctors fear that the situation in Turkey will worsen even further in the coming weeks and months.
Already now there would be a shortage of important medication and intensive care beds would be scarce.
With the start of the flu season, many hospitals could reach their limits, and the medical association is also warning of the second corona wave - and this at a time when confidence in the government's corona management has reached a low point.
Icon: The mirror