Smoke ban officially extended to bars, restaurants

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government barred smoking in offices, public transport and other public places in May 2008 in an effort to reduce the country's high smoking rate and the effects of passive smoking on people's health. Bars, restaurants and cafes were given a grace period that ended at midnight on Saturday.

Health Minister Recep Akdağ says smoking rates have dropped 7 percent since May 2008, when the ban on indoor smoking was introduced. He says more people will give up smoking now that bars, restaurants and cafes are also smoke-free. The government has dismissed the bar and coffeehouse owners' protests and rejected requests that special smoking rooms be set up to make sure that smokers keep coming.

"There is no reason for [cafe and bar owners] to be worried. The public supports a smoke-free environment, and the only ones to suffer will be the cigarette producers and sellers," Akdağ told reporters. "We are working to protect our future, to save our youth," Akdağ said. Under the new legislation, patrons violating the ban will be fined TL 69, while owners who do not enforce the ban could be fined between TL 560 and TL 5,600. Littering with cigarette butts carries a TL 25 fine. Turkey is also setting up a 4,500-person force to carry out surprise checks on bars, restaurants and coffeehouses and help enforce the ban.

"To smoke like a Turk" is an expression used in many European countries to describe heavy smokers and the government says more than 100,000 people die annually in Turkey from smoking-related illnesses.

The government insists the ban has the public's support. On Sunday, the first day of the ban, Remzi Çalayır, a man who visited a traditional coffee house in the southern province of Adana, notified the police when he saw a group of men smoking inside. When police arrived at the coffee house, the smokers had already left the scene. The police officers settled for warning the customers and the owner of the coffee house about obeying the smoking ban.

In another case in the western province of İzmir, a newlywed couple, Bora and Aylin Baraz, had to go outside the restaurant where they were having a meal to celebrate their marriage in order to smoke. “We came here to enjoy ourselves on the happiest day of our lives, but we were faced with the smoking ban here and had to go out to smoke,” said Aylin Baraz.

Yeşilay, an organization devoted to reducing alcohol and tobacco consumption, says around 40 percent of Turks over the age of 15 are smokers, consuming around 17 million packets of cigarettes a day.