Gevorg Tamamyan, Editor-in-Chief of OncoDaily, President of SIOP Asia and POEM Group, shared a post on LinkedIn։
“Why should readers around the world care about a doctor in a small country in the South Caucasus?
Because health systems are built on trust. And trust is built on values. Values have no borders.
A few days ago, a physician working at a government hospital in Armenia lost her job.
Two months earlier, during an election campaign, she had publicly questioned the Prime Minister. The very next day, according to her account, the director of the hospital asked her to resign. She refused.
Two months later, she received an official letter informing her that her position had been abolished as part of an organizational restructuring.
A position disappears.
The person disappears with it.
Officially, no one has been dismissed. It is simply a management decision.
Perhaps it is.
But when organizational restructuring repeatedly affects those who publicly disagree with those in power, society has not only the right, but the obligation, to ask difficult questions.
The physician at the center of this story is also the sister of a military doctor who disappeared during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war—a conflict that ultimately ended with the ethnic cleansing of more than 120,000 Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh. Whether one agrees with her views or not, it is difficult to deny that the questions she raised came from personal pain and conviction.
This story is not about one doctor.
It is not about one hospital.
It is not even about one government.
It is about values.
It makes us ask a much larger question.
What does it really mean to choose Europe?
For me, Europe has never been about geography.
It has never been about politics.
It has never been about financial assistance, institutional membership, or diplomatic declarations.
Europe is, first and foremost, a system of values.
It is respect for human dignity.
It is freedom of expression.
It is independent institutions.
It is accountability.
It is the belief that no citizen should fear asking a legitimate question.
These values were not handed to Europe.
They were earned.
Generations fought for them.
Students filled Europe’s streets demanding freedom.
Journalists defended truth.
Scientists challenged accepted ideas.
Physicians defended their patients.
People sacrificed their careers, their freedom, and sometimes even their lives so that future generations could live in societies where disagreement would not be punished.
That is the Europe I admire.
Not because it is perfect.
But because it continuously strives to protect the freedom to think, to question, and to speak.
Healthcare cannot exist without these values.
Medicine advances because physicians ask uncomfortable questions.
Patients are safer because healthcare professionals are free to challenge systems when systems fail.
The day doctors begin wondering whether speaking honestly could cost them their careers is the day every patient should become concerned.
So let us ask an honest question.
Is this the European way?
When institutions wish to silence an inconvenient voice, is abolishing the position more acceptable than dismissing the individual?
If necessary, do they abolish the department?
Or perhaps the entire institution?
Where does that logic end?
There is always an administrative explanation.
There is always an organizational chart that can be redrawn.
There is always a management rationale.
But public trust cannot be reorganized.
This editorial is not about defending one individual.
It is about defending a principle.
Strong institutions do not fear questions.
Strong governments do not fear criticism.
Strong health systems protect the professional independence of those who care for patients.
Throughout my career, I have worked with thousands of healthcare professionals across the world. They come from different cultures, speak different languages, and work under different political systems.
Yet they all share one common mission.
To serve their patients with integrity.
They deserve institutions that protect that integrity.
Every country has the sovereign right to choose its own future.
But Europe is not a destination reached by signing agreements.
Europe is reached every day—in hospitals, universities, courtrooms, and newsrooms.
It is reached when institutions answer questions with dialogue rather than fear.
It is reached when professionals are judged by their competence rather than their loyalty.
It is reached when doctors can speak without wondering whether tomorrow their position will simply cease to exist.
The route to Europe is not measured by the roads we build.
It is measured by the values we choose to live by.
Is this the Europe generations believed in?
Is this the liberty for which generations of Europeans stood, fought, and sacrificed?
Or have we mistaken the road for the destination?”
Other posts featuring Gevorg Tamamyan on OncoDaily.