ANKARA, Jan 15 (A.A) - Pharmacists closed on Tuesday their shops to protest 10 percent reduction in domestic medicine by the Health Ministry.
Almost 50 pharmacies on duty are open, however, they only sell emergency medicine.
Pharmacists said that they would not sell parfumery and cosmetic products.
Turkish Pharmacists' Union (TEB) Chairman Mehmet Domac told A.A correspondent that almost 150 of 4,300 pharmacies were open in Istanbul and said that all pharmacists obeyed the decision to close the shops throughout Turkey.
Domac claimed that the Health Ministry could not cancel the licence of the pharmacists who closed their pharmacies and said that the pharmacists had the right to close their shops in accordance with the law on pharmacies and pharmacists.
Health Minister Osman Durmus had noted that legal proceedings would be launched for the pharmacies which were not open due to the protest and said that those pharmacies might be closed down.
DURMUS: ''I WILL FILE A COMPLAINT ABOUT TURKISH PHARMACISTS ASSOCIATION''
Health Minister Osman Durmus said Tuesday that he would file a complaint about Turkish Pharmacists Association under the Turkish Penal Code's (TCK) articles 401 and 402.
Durmus said that chambers should be responsible for protecting the interests of their colleagues, but this association was threatening its colleagues to shut down their pharmacies.
''This association doesn't have the right to lead pharmacists to do something that contradicts with their professional ethics,'' he commented.
Durmus indicated that there has been demands to decrease 18 percent Value Added Tax on medicine to ten or eight percent for about a year. ''The True Path Party (DYP) leader also made a statement. Coalition partners also had contributions. Parliament should correct this mistake.
He said that pharmacies made a very high profit through 12 price increases throughout last year. He said the recent decision would cause a ten percent loss to the pharmacies but the prices would be revised within two months to make up for this loss.
Burhan Isen, Motherland Party (ANAP) deputy said the recent decision would drift many pharmacies to bankruptcy. He said that 6,000 to 7,000 pharmacies might shut down leaving 20,000 people unemployed.