The Academy of Athens welcomes new member Mehmet Çamberal, honorary professor of Genetic Surgery at Hacettepe University in Ankara and founder of the Turkish Transplantation Society, as well as Başkent University.

In essence, beyond the titles and his CV that is filled with distinctions and significant contributions to science, the Academy welcomed a figure with great significance for contemporary Türkiye. Aside  from being an eminent scientist, Çamberal is a symbol of resistance, opposing arbitrary power that at times in his homeland the struggles to contain the disposition of any autocratic regime those who dared were seen as disruptive and dangerous.

The case of Mehmet Çamberal is quite unusual and highly intricate, even though he represents a multifaceted personality with wide interests and initiatives in the field of science if someone really wanted to understand Çamberal they would need to read about his trial proceedings when he was accused of a plethora of actions among those being that of the founder and mastermind of a terrorist organisation.

Having completed 357 days in pre-trial detention, but never being informed of the crimes he was allegedly committed, this led to his incarceration in high-security prisons, Mehmet Çamberal was allowed to exercise his right to defend himself before the 13th Chamber of the Supreme Court of Istanbul on April 5th and 6th, 2010. Among other things, vehemently asserting his complete innocence, Çamberal quoted Socrates and Alexander the Great: “Once they asked Socrates, “Upon what does the world stand?” And he replied: “It is justice that is the foundation of the world. When tyranny comes, the existence of the state becomes unimaginable.” From Alexander the Great, Çamberal chose a dialogue with Aristotle: “Which virtue is more important for a leader, justice or courage?” “Where there is justice, courage is unnecessary.”

A supplementary but by no means secondary aspect regarding Çamberal’s imprisonment and his stance throughout his ordeal with the law concerned his health condition. He presented his defense remotely, from a infirmary room where he was hospitalised under guard following a heart attack. However, he refused to be released for health reasons. Addressing the bench, he stated, “I have always maintained that if I am guilty of any crime, I am ready to face the consequences and the appropriate punishment. However, my release should be decided based on the evidence and not because of the health issues I am facing. This, to me, is unacceptable.”

Mehmet Çamberal was arrested in April 2009 on suspicion of involvement in illegal subversive organisation Ergenekon. When the charges were read by the court president, a year later, Çamberal heard that he was accused, among many other serious crimes, of abusing his medical function by deliberately endangering the health of the President of Türkiye, Bülent Ecevit, who was hospitalised at Ankara University Hospital, with Çamberal being his attending physician.

Ultimately, the sentence imposed by the court on Mehmet Çamberal for the sum of charges was 12.5 years of imprisonment. However, he was released earlier, on August 5, 2013, and  immediately after, in October of the same year, he was elected as a member of the Turkish Parliament with the Republican People’s Party (CHP). He retained his seat until 2015 when he decided not to seek reelection, thus ending his involvement in politics. However, this did not mean that he abandoned his efforts to contribute to society with dynamic initiatives. Çamberal spearheaded the drafting of the “Istanbul Declaration,” which, in the name of fundamental human rights, condemns and denounces organ trafficking as the worst form of human trafficking. The Declaration is considered a milestone for transplants worldwide and is regularly renewed through new conferences.

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It has been accepted by all transplantation companies worldwide and serves as a basis for justice, as it has been adopted by the World Health Organization. It is used to exert pressure on doctors, governments, and state agencies, aiming for the complete eradication of the dismal phenomenon of human organ trafficking. Additionally, since 1993, Çamberal had realized his vision to establish a private higher education institution, which would be accessible to all his fellow citizens. Today, Başkent University includes 11 faculties, with branches in various cities of Turkey besides Ankara, and over time, a Medical Research Center and a university hospital were added.

Additionally, in 2004 Mehmet Çamberal established his own media group, with the television network and radio station Başkent.

A Restless Pioneer 

On Tuesday, at the reception ceremony, the President of the Academy of Athens, Stamatis Krimizis, he will address Professor Çamberal, followed by a speech from the academic Andreas Tzakis, a colleague of the honoree, as he himself is a distinguished transplant surgeon. Çamberal will then deliver a speech titled “The History of Transplants in Türkiye,” that essentially is his own story. After all, he was the founder of the Turkish Transplantation Society in 1990, as a culmination of his experience in this specific surgical field. As mentioned in his introductory speech in May 2023 by the academic Andreas Tzakis had expressed, “Mehmet Çamberal was born in 1944 in the village of Sumbasi in the province of Pazar, on the eastern shores of Turkey, on the Black Sea, just 20 years after the reforms of Kemal Atatürk.

He apprenticed at the only primary school in the area and even had to carry stones to build the high school he later attended. In 1961, he passed the entrance exams for the Medical School of Ankara, from where he graduated in 1967. He specialized in General Surgery at the Hacettepe University Hospital in Ankara and then continued his specialization in the United States. He served as a fellow at the Shriners Burn Hospital in Galveston, Texas, and then at the University of Colorado, specializing in transplants under the direction of Thomas Starzl. Çamberal was a fellow at the same time as the late Yiannis Homatas, while Starzl was also my teacher, ten years later.”

In 1975, he returned to Türkiye and worked at the Hacettepe Hospital in Ankara, where he founded the burn and transplant unit. That same year, Çamberal performed the first kidney transplant in Turkey from a living donor, in 1978 the first from a deceased donor, with an organ donated by Eurotransplant, as at that time there was no law in Turkey for donation from deceased donors, something that was enacted the following year. In 1980, Çamberal founded the Burns and Transplant Foundation of Türkiye and in 1982 inaugurated the first dialysis unit in Ankara, later in many other cities in Türkiye. At the same time, he was appointed regular professor of General Surgery at Hacettepe University.

There were also other bold, pioneering actions for his country. Such as the founding, in 1985, of the Middle East Dialysis and Organ Transplantation Foundation, aimed at facilitating inter-hospital organ exchange in the Middle East. In 1988, Çamberal performed the first successful liver transplant in Turkey.

As expected, for his scientific work and contribution, Mehmet Çamberal has been honored with multiple and significant awards, such as the Millennium Medal from the International Transplantation Society, his election to the American Surgical Association, and more. In 2009, he became an honorary member of the American College of Surgeons – and, notably, while he was in prison. In 2020, King Felipe of Spain awarded Çamberal the highest honor, the Cruz de Official. He has authored or collaborated on more than 2,000 scientific papers, and he publishes and is the editor-in-chief of the monthly “Experimental and Clinical Transplantation,” the official journal of the Middle East Transplantation Society.

In summary, in a few sentences, the undoubtedly impressive journey of the new foreign member – one of the few – for the Academy of Athens, the director of the Surgical Clinic of the Health Group, Professor Dimitris Linos, stated to  “Proto Thema that “I also had the honor, like many other professors from Europe and the US to connect with Professor Çamberal through a deep friendship and mutual respect, often participating in his many scientific activities at Başkent University in Ankara, which he founded and cares for as his child. But what we most recognize in Mehmet is his simplicity and generosity. As president of the International, as well as the Greek Society of Endocrine Surgeons, I had the opportunity to honor him in Greece, although the tomorrow’s honor of the Academy of Athens is very significant.

It’s the first time a Turkish medical professor has been honored, and this is due to the internationally renowned professor and academic, Andreas Tzakis. Professor Çamberal continues to cultivate, friendship among scientists from all countries, for the good of every student, as well as every patient being treated in Turkey and any other country.”