In the early 2010s, food engineer Bülent Şık worked on a five-year research project commissioned by Turkey’s Ministry of Health to investigate unusually high cancer rates in Kocaeli, Tekirdağ, Kırklareli, Edirne, and Antalya. The study identified dangerous toxicity levels in multiple food and water samples and concluded that water in several residential areas was unsafe to drink. Şık reported the findings to the government in 2015, but the source states that no public action followed for three years.
In April 2018, Şık published the results in the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet. The Turkish government alleged that he had violated confidentiality rules and sued him for revealing classified information and provoking public outrage, without denying the published findings’ accuracy. He had also been dismissed from Akdeniz University in 2016 under a presidential decree-law after signing a peace petition concerning Turkish forces and Kurdish militants. On September 26, 2019, he received a 15-month prison sentence for “disclosing information about duty,” though he was acquitted of providing prohibited information. Amnesty International characterized the case as persecution of a whistleblower. In April 2025, the 13th Penal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Appeals acquitted Şık.
