“A list of shame that will shock Turkey” read a headline in the daily Hurriyet on Jan. 17. Journalist Dincer Gokce's exclusive report revealed that an Istanbul hospital failed to disclose to police at least 115 underage pregnancies documented by hospital staff. Hospitals in Turkey are required by law to report all pregnancies to girls under 18 to police and social services, but the Kanuni Sultan Suleyman Research and Education Hospital failed to disclose to authorities the pregnancies it documented last year between Jan. 1 and May 9. Of those pregnancies, 39 were Syrian nationals and 38 were girls younger than 15.

The Kanuni Sultan Suleyman Hospital had “hidden” these pregnancies from authorities. But social worker turned whistleblower Iclal Nergiz, who had been transferred to the hospital's social services department in May, noticed that the hospital's official report and obligatory notice to the police on a pregnant 17-year-old was missing. She inquired about it but received no answer from hospital officials. When she checked the hospital's database, she discovered more than 100 similar unreported cases. Hospital staff ignored her requests for further information and she was eventually transferred to another hospital.

But Nergiz did not give up. On Oct. 3, she reported the case to the prosecutor's office in the Cekmece district of Istanbul, along with her affidavit on what happened at the hospital when she inquired about the underage pregnancies. Yet the hospital and government authorities at the heart of the accusations remained silent at the time, only commenting on the issue after the news became public and generated a national uproar three months later.

An initial statement by the minister of family and social policies, Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya, on Jan. 19 merely indicated that the ministry had started an investigation into the matter. “We will interview all the children at their homes alongside their families," she said. "We have never allowed any sexual harassment case to be covered up.”