Turkey drags its smokers outdoors = Ban will hit hard in Turkey’s traditional village tea houses

Turkey drags its smokers outdoors = Ban will hit hard in Turkey’s traditional village tea houses
By Delphine Strauss and Funja Guler in Ankara
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Published: July 17 2009 19:20 | Last updated: July 17 2009 19:20
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0b8edefc-72fb-11de-ad98-00144feabdc0.html


The Ottoman sultan Murat IV used to stalk the streets of Istanbul in the 17th century ordering summary executions of smokers, who were then viewed as immoral, un-Islamic and potentially seditious.

From Sunday, hard-smoking Turks face another ban, this time on lighting up indoors in cafés, bars and restaurants, expected to be pursued with equal vigour, although less drastic penalties, by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, their ascetic prime minister.

If successfully enforced, it will be a revolution in a country that puffs through more than 100bn cigarettes a year, making it the world’s eighth-biggest cigarette market, and where half of all men are smokers, well above the European average.

The ban will hit hard in traditional village tea houses, where retired and unemployed men spend their days clicking backgammon pieces in a tobacco haze. It will also force the country’s nargile – or water pipe – aficionados outdoors.

“We’ll have hard times,” said Deniz, a 31-year-old who runs a tea house in the unadorned basement of an Ankara tower block. “My customers say they’ll smoke, they can’t give up. But if I get a 5,000 lira ($3,300) fine, I’ll have to close down.”

Upmarket bars and cafés also fear conflicts with stubborn customers. Mustafa, the manager of a western-style coffee shop in central Ankara, said some of his clients were already asking whether he would bribe officials to overlook illicit ashtrays.

Many Turks view cigarettes and raki – the aniseed-flavoured national drink – as an inseparable combination, and some think the ban, already in place in offices and public transport, is indirectly aimed at cutting alcohol consumption in a society that is becoming increasingly conservative.

Leaders of all the main political parties back the measure, however, and it seems to have won broad public acceptance.

“I’m strongly in favour,” says 69-year-old Ismet, an asthmatic pensioner stacking domino pieces in Deniz’s teahouse. “I’ve never touched a cigarette. I even bought my son a car to persuade him to stop smoking, but he still wouldn’t quit.”

The existing ban on smoking in public places is sometimes ignored in smaller places. But Mr Erdogan’s personal antipathy to the habit means that officials are preparing to enforce the new rules with energy, even in remote provinces.

A fine of 69 lira for individuals caught smoking is little deterrent, but fines for businesses can run from TL560 to TL5,600.

“Step by step we’ll get there,” says Deniz, who added, “90 per cent of my customers smoke but the main reason they come here is to pass the time. What would they do at home?”