Quarantine: Erdogan enforces 17-day dry law and infuriates Turks

ISTANBUL.- The decision of the Turkish government to ban the sale of alcohol during the 17-day quarantine which started yesterday, angered some secular Turks, who see it as a new ruse of the president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to take advantage of the pandemic and impose a religious lifestyle on the whole of society.

Erdogan announced the quarantine on Monday, but only said schools and most stores would be closed and people would have to stay home to stem the rise in infections and deaths.

“Activities will be suspended in all work centers except for the production, manufacturing, food, cleaning and health sectors,” he said in a televised message.

But it was Tuesday that his AK party government, with Islamist roots, announced that the sale of alcohol would also be prohibited until May 17, prompting secular Turks to rush to stock their cupboards with drinks before the measures go into effect Thursday night.

The government’s explanation was that the ban was aimed at prevent supermarkets, which may remain open to food purchases, from having a monopoly on the sale of alcohol to the detriment of small stores, which will be forced to close.

But this explanation has not convinced all Turks, with some saying that the dry law had nothing to do with the fight against the coronavirus and they pointed out that one of the exemptions from the blockade included people praying in mosques.

“I don’t think it has to do with the coronavirus. I think the government thought ‘let’s ban it from now on so people get used to it slowly’Said Adem Gulen, a young man who recently graduated from Istanbul.

In a television interview on Wednesday, Home Secretary Suleyman Soylu dismissed the idea that by banning the sale of alcohol the government was aiming to limit citizens’ options, highlighting other pandemic measures such as restrictions on alcohol consumption. trip.

An Interior Ministry official said liquor stores were not essential and the ban it avoids unfair competition and is not motivated by religion.

“It has nothing to do with Ramadan”, the official said about the Islamic holy month in which you cannot drink alcohol and which ends when the quarantine ends. “People have already bought more than enough (alcohol) in the last few days.”

Turks took to social media to express their frustration and the move was criticized by opposition politicians who said a government notification could not erase a constitutional right.

this is the first strict containment imposed on Turkey since the start of the pandemic, which has officially claimed nearly 40,000 lives and more than 4.75 million people infected.

Since the sales ban was announced, people have lined up outside liquor stores, while in some supermarkets beer and wine racks have been empty.

“The measure interferes with the secular way of life and constitutes an intervention in the culture of food and drink,” said Ozgur Aybas, director of an association of liquor stores.

“Of course, our problem is not alcohol. It is the intervention in our private life “, He said.

Most Turks are Muslim practitioners. Secular Turks, who tend to oppose Erdogan’s AK party, have complained in recent years that his increasingly religious agenda is encroaching on their way of life.

The president, who has ruled Turkey for 18 years, regularly says he wants to forge “a pious generation”, and in the past he has even asked citizens who have at least three children.

Turkey is not the first country to impose a dry law during the pandemic.

South Africa It has also banned the sale of alcohol for two limited periods, saying hospitals at risk of collapse by Covid patients should not have to cope as well. persons admitted for excessive alcohol consumption.

Reuters Agency

Reuters