Turkey to repatriate cancer patient from France

By Sinan Uslu

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey will bring home an expat from France who is suffering from cancer but is not getting the treatment she needs, a prominent ruling party lawmaker said on Thursday.

"We surely could not ignore the call for help from our sister Emine Eskil... No ambulance has been dispatched to her house yet," Zafer Sirakaya, an Istanbul lawmaker of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, told Anadolu Agency.

Eskil is fighting both breast and bone cancer in Reims, northern France.

She and her husband implored President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to help them earlier this week via Turkish media.

"Emine Eskil, who was denied admission to hospital after being given a dose of morphine, will be brought to Turkey via air ambulance as soon as possible," Sirakaya said.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, Turkey has repatriated more than 60,000 of its citizens from across the world.

Turkey has long provided air ambulance service to its citizens present in any part of the world.

*Writing by Emin Avundukluoglu