The unexpected effect of Syrian civil war in Turkey: Change of forensic postmortem case pattern

Abstract

In the last decade, the whole world has witnessed a chaotic process characterized by uprisings, revolutions, and wars in the Middle East. The Syrian civil war, with its local and global consequences, is the most destructive of these events. Social and economic aspects of the effects of the Syrian civil war were discussed in detail. However, the change in forensic postmortem case pattern of neighboring countries remains unclear. Here, we aim to discuss the effects of the Syrian civil war on forensic postmortem case patterns in Turkey as a neighboring country, with possible causes and suggestions. The postmortem case patterns of the 5-year period before the beginning of the Syrian war (2006-2011) and the next 5-year period after the start of the war (2012-2016) were investigated retrospectively. This aims to reveal the possible effects of the Syrian civil war on forensic postmortem case pattern of Turkey in relation to the assault deaths of statistics of Turkey. We found that explosion-related and firearm-related death cases significantly increased after the Syrian civil war. The dramatic increase in the explosion-related deaths can be attributed to terrorist attacks. Wounded civilians during the civil war were admitted to health units and hospitals in the south and southeast parts of Turkey, which consequently result in a crisis in the application of health services. There was no significant difference in Turkish death statistics, however forensic case pattern was affected.

Keywords: Forensic death investigation; Forensic medicine; Forensic postmortem case pattern; Syrian civil war.