Smoking Ban and Job Losses in Turkey

Canada is considered to be among those countries at the forefront of anti-smoking legislation, but the rest of the world is beginning to catch up. But this article show some anti-smoking measures in Turkey.

On July 19th in Turkey will be implemented smoking ban in cafes. That’s why approximately 1 million people employed in the cafe business in Turkey fear losing their jobs after this new legislation.

Murat Ağaoğlu, the president of the Turkey Coffeehouses and Cafes Federation, said: "At the moment coffeehouse owners are very worried because the implementation of the smoking ban will completely kill an already stagnant business. We are already struggling to put bread on our tables due to the economic crisis. With this ban we will have to shutter our businesses and join the army of the unemployed".

He argued that there are around 250,000 coffeehouses in city centers across the country and that they provide employment to close to a million people.

Also coffeehouses have around 20 million customers and most of them are unemployed people or those close to retirement.

Ağaoğlu said that even before the declaration of the tobacco ban coffeehouse owners were supposing to create isolated smoking and non-smoking sections. And some coffeehouse owners could create those separate sections very easy.

"Coffeehouses that are based on two stories can do this easily. Smokers and non-smokers would be separated. Isn’t the whole point of this ban to protect non-smokers from smoke? The new law doesn’t even allow for that. And separate sections were widespread in Spain. Spain is a member of the European Union. If this can be implemented there then why not in our country," added Ağaoğlu.

But fines ranging from 560 Turkish Liras to 5,600 liras would be set on café owners that allow the ban to be violated and that this would lead to fights among customers and proprietors since they cannot afford to pay such fines. That’s why this ban needs to be examined once again before being implemented.

Tobacco products were banned on May 19th in enclosed area of buildings providing public services, buildings that cater to educational, health, production, commercial, social, cultural and sporting activities, all forms of public transport including taxis. But this ban will be extended on July 19th to include restaurants, coffeehouses, cafeterias and bars.