Jump to full article: AP, 2009-07-18
Author: SUZAN FRASER (AP)
Intro: It's just after midnight at Ankara's EskiYeni (OldNew) Bar and customers are feting "The Last Night of Smoking." A majority have lit up and are swaying to the rhythm of cigarette-themed 60s and 70s Turkish songs.
Technically, they are breaking the law. At midnight Saturday Turkey extended a ban on indoor public smoking to include bars, restaurants, village coffeehouses and hookah bars. Some smokers have left the bar for its courtyard to light up, but most are carrying on smoking inside.
The ban came into effect despite protests from bar and coffeehouse owners who fear it will ruin businesses that have already been hit hard by the effects of an economic crisis.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-oriented government barred smoking in offices and public transport and other public places in May 2008 in an effort to reduce the country's high smoking rates and the effects of secondhand smoke on people's health. Bars, restaurants and cafes were given a grace period that ended at midnight Saturday.
"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.
Jump to full article » |