ISTANBUL – We were dining at home when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ('RTE') was commenting on President Biden's recognition of the Armenian genocide on livestream. However, his speech unexpectedly changed its direction and arrived at Coronavirus.
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After opening the restaurants and decreasing the closure from full weekend to only Sunday, unfortunately only for a few weeks, Turkey announced its semi-closure precautions on April 14th, when we were having Yom Haatzmaut celebrations on the streets, almost without masks.
Turkey has enforced a weeknight curfew starting at 7 p.m., together with a full curfew on the weekend and suspension of dine-in services in restaurants, and a ban on travel between cities.
This semi-lockdown started on the Ramadan month when vast majority of the population fast. By changing the curfew hour from 9 p.m. to 7 p.m. the government tried to prevent the gatherings for iftar and thus the closure of the restaurants only affected the secular minority.
On the other hand, the infectious cases were rising up to 60,000 per day last week and the precautions weren't enough since the offices were still open and the exception list for the closure was too wide.
As a lawyer, I had the privilege to travel during the semi-lockdown although no ordinary hearing is being held on the lockdown days and hours. And I am only one example. Hotels were open for tourism and fully booked with their new Corona capacity. Hundreds of people were issuing fake doctors reports and as a result, the famous Bosphorus Bridge was full of cars last weekend.
Not surprisingly, the full lockdown came with more serious rules. After realizing the new measures to be enacted, people got crazy on Tuesday and Wednesday, trying to complete their needs before the start of a 17-day full lockdown. Again, people ran to supermarkets to avoid visiting during the lockdown. Post offices, government, and local offices have a long cue to clear off all the duties and needs.
One of the most problematic regulations concerns the alcohol prohibition during the lockdown. This is not a new application, however, it only applied during the weekend lockdowns.
The question arises from the shuttering of the tekel shops, where you can get alcohol and tobacco 24 hours. Allegedly, the tekel shops protested that the supermarkets will profit much more because they are not allowed to sell during the lockdown and it will create unfair competition. As a solution, instead of canceling the measure, the government banned the sales of alcoholic products during the lockdown hours and days and now namely for 17 days.
Again, this regulation did not affect the vast majority who fast during Ramadan and even those who do not fast but avoid the consummation of alcohol. However, the secular minority is buying bottles of alcohol during these two days since they won't be able in the upcoming weeks.
With the declaration of the full lockdown, people booked tickets or planned their travel to their summer houses where they can enjoy being at home. Unlike the semi-lockdown, now booking a hotel will not be sufficient to travel. However, interestingly the new regulation also restricts the time to be spent outdoors. There is no permit for sports or running/walking even in the garden. New regulation authorized the management of the gated communities to decide if and how the residents will be able to use the common garden and utilities.
Again, Turkey does not want to scare its tourists. The tourists are exempted from all of these restrictions and touristic places such as museums will continue serving as in semi-lockdown. Again, the definition of tourist is not clear. However, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu explicitly threatened those holding more than one passport by expatriation in case they try to act like a tourist.
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