[Health policy of the Republic of Turkey in accordance with the Minutes of the Turkish Parliament (part I)].

Because of the invasion of the Ottoman territory after the World War I, the Turkish War of Liberty was initiated by Mustafa Kemal Pasha and his friends. While they aimed at a successful outcome of the battle, they at the same time tried to achieve a nation-wide organization. In order to look after the nation's medical and social service, on May 2nd 1920, a new ministry called the Ministry for Medical and Social Service was founded. The new ministry's task was not only to concern itself with the medical and social service, but also with immigration and of the immigrants. At the beginning the hitherto existing social system and certain laws were not abolished until they were replaced by new ones in order to prevent an interruption in the social service. In these years the aim of the social system was to struggle against infectious diseases, to prevent infections, to decrease infant mortality and to increase the population, to take measures against diseases from abroad, to pass the laws needed and to form a central authority. Besides these laws which were directly related with the medical and social service during the War of Liberty, the governing of the districts and the regulations concerning the miners in Zonguldak were passed in order to protect peoples' health. Our political existence was confirmed through the signing of the agreement reached by the Lausanne Conference after the War of Liberty and consequently the Medical Care Supreme Council of Istanbul, which had continued its validity as a capitulation, was abolished. The social state policy of the period which had started with the foundation of the Turkish Republic aimed to extend the state's medical staff, continue the employment of the health personnel specialized in medicine, struggle against infectious diseases in an organised way, provide a wide-spread medical service, give priority to preventive health care and establish medical institutions, effect a cooperation of these institutes, pass the necessary laws and establish state supervision in all fields. In the first ten years of the Republic, new schools and courses were started in order to increase the number of the medical staff to be sent to areas deprived of social service. In accordance with the Obligatory Service Law of 1923, doctors who were sent to eastern Turkey were provided with encouraging advantages. The organizational work and the laws concerning infectious diseases like malaria, syphilis and trachoma, which were wide-spread, was effective and successful from the year 1925 onwards when Dr. Refik Saydam was the Minister for Health. The meetings of the Turkish National Congresses on Medicine helped solve the nation's health problems and influenced the state's policy and the Health Ministry's activities. The aim was not merely the protection of peoples' health through education. In this period, many laws were passed with the aim to protect the nation's health and to ensure state control in every field. Some of these are still in force today. Besides the medical treatment of the poor and the old, laws of validity for a long period, which were effective in the protection of the health of children, the adolescent and the pregnant women in the social life and employment, were passed. In the first ten years of the Republic a protective, comprehensive and human health policy was observed in accordance with the policy of the state.