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• Turkey: Anti-Smoking Advocates Pleased with Early Results of Restaurant/Bar Ban 

It's just over three weeks since a ban on smoking tobacco products indoors took hold in Turkey. Despite initial concern about how the public would react to prohibition, anti-smoking campaigners are so far delighted with the early results.

Now that the ban is in effect, authorities are shifting attention to enforcement, while continuing efforts to educate smokers and owners about the legislation, as well as raise awareness about the health risks associated with smoking. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. A nationwide team of over 4,000 anti-tobacco officers, comprising local officials and law-enforcement authorities, is responsible for following up on calls to hotlines, and for performing spot checks on establishments. An estimated 20,000 spot checks occurred during the first two weeks of the ban. These surprise visits indicated that 94 percent of the establishments inspected were conforming to the new rules; a figure that is a source of satisfaction for authorities.

But early implementation success is not breeding complacency within the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been an outspoken proponent of the ban.

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