New hospital in Istanbul named after Syriac Prof. Dr. Murat Dilmener

ISTANBUL, Turkey – The new hospital built on the grounds of the former airport grounds in the Yesilköy district of Istanbul will carry the name of late Syriac Prof. Dr. Murat Dilmener, Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan announced. The new Dilmener Emergency Hospital will open at the end of May.

Syriac Prof. Dr. Murat Dilmener (78) passed away earlier this month in intensive care after he had contracted the Coronavirus. Murat Dilmener was professor at the Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine and was the first Syriac professor in Turkey. Professor Dilmener was an internal medicine specialist and lecturer at the Istanbul University School of Medicine. He was born in Mardin an has held voluntary positions at Syriac churches in Mardin and Istanbul.

In 2004, authorities opened an investigation against Dilmener (“Doctor of the poor”) and 135 other doctors on the grounds that they had treated poor patients unlawfully for free at an Istanbul hospital.

The Syriac church in Istanbul issued a statement on its Twitter account stating,

“After having been diagnosed with Covid-19 and receiving mercy, the name of the much valued and late Prof. Dr. Murat Dilmener, the great pride of the Syriac and medical community, will be immortalized by naming the new Pandemic Hospital, Yeşilköy, after him. We present our endless gratitude and thanks to Mr. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.”

Covid-19tanısı ile rahmete kavuşan, Süryani toplumunun ve tıp camiasının büyük değeri merhum Prof. Dr. MURAT DİLMENER’in ismini Yeşilköy’de kurulan Pandemi Hastanesine vererek ölümsüzleştiren Sayın Cumhurbaşkanımız Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’a sonsuz minnet ve şükranlarımızı arz ederiz pic.twitter.com/E1NxWkspB8

— İstanbul Süryani Kadim Vakfı (@KadimVakf) May 18, 2020