The activist and the head of the Turkish Medical Association Sebnem Korur Fincanci answers journalists' questions on July 17, 2019 in front of Istanbul's courthouse, after a trial. (Credit: AFP file)
Turkish police on Wednesday detained the head of Turkey's union of doctors on "terror propaganda" charges after she urged a probe into the army's alleged use of chemical weapons against Kurdish militants, the prosecutor's office said.
Turkey has firmly rejected the allegations that appeared in media outlets close to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that its army was using chemical weapons in its counter-terror operations in northern Iraq.
Sebnem Korur Fincanci, head of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), said she had examined video images and called for a probe.
Fincanci told AFP last week that she had only called for "an effective investigation" into the allegations.
The Ankara chief prosecutor's office said in a statement Wednesday that Fincanci was detained over her comments in media outlets acting as a mouthpiece for the PKK, which is listed as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies.
The prosecutor's office also demanded that Fincanci should be stripped of her position as the head of the union and that a new chair should be elected.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday accused Fincanci of "speaking the language of terrorism" and said she could not remain at the top of the TTB.
"If necessary, we will ensure that this name is changed by legal regulation," he said after a weekly cabinet meeting.
The PKK has kept up a deadly insurgency for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey since 1984.
The Turkish army has launched successive operations against the militant group's rear bases in northern Iraq, a persistent thorn in Ankara's ties with the Baghdad government.
Defense Minister Hulusi Akar on Monday said the Turkish armed forces had "no chemical weapons in its inventory."
"This is out of the question," he added, slamming the claims as "vile slander."