Welcome to smoke-free Turkey. I hope it will indeed be so. If I see violators, I won't refrain from calling for stronger law enforcement. Let the state's authority be of some real use.

- 20 / 05 / 2008 13:49

I have never understood why people smoke cigarettes. I have tried about a little less than a dozen of them throughout my life, and each and every one was horrible. Therefore, even if they were magical health potions that heal the body and the mind, I would have a hard time using them. So it is completely beyond me why people pay to smoke those stinking white paper tubes, which only kills them slowly.

  Yet I am also tolerant. I know that humans are not terribly rational beings and they do all sorts of things that do not fit into reason. And we have no option other than being lenient to their wrongdoings. I am also an empiricist. I believe people find the truth mainly by learning from their mistakes. Thus, I think, we need to expose more “cigarette deaths,” so that more people, hopefully, might come to their senses.

Men in smoke:

  So my personal humble policy on this matter is this: Let freedom reign and let people smoke – but not in my space. They have the right to poison themselves, but not others who chose to live a healthy, clean and non-stinking life.

  Some people would object by saying that a smoking ban is a limitation on individual freedoms, and this does not fit into the liberalism that some, including me, cherish. But individual freedom has limits within liberalism, too. You cannot walk around by carrying a blood-dripping sword and a sign that reads, “I will butcher the first Pisces I see.” That would freak people out, so infringing their right to live in security. Similarly, smoking in a closed space infringes other people's right to breathe clean air.

  No wonder I have been personally combating public smoking for long. In the offices of the Turkish Daily News, I have turned off some colleagues by insisting, “Could you please put that cigarette out.” I have also declared that I wouldn't join meetings if smoking were allowed. Call me an anti-smoke fanatic. I am indeed one, and I am dangerous: Now I have even the law behind me!

  What I am referring to is the recently introduced smoking ban in Turkey in all closed public spaces. I think it is just great. There are indeed only a few bans that the good-old Turkish Republic has introduced and has been helpful to the Turkish people. This one should be, I think, on the top of the list.

  This is not just a good step for public health, but also a radical one for the Turkish mind. Smoking is such an integral part of the Turkish culture, and especially the male subculture. Young boys often start smoking in order to prove that they have come of age. Studies suggest that more than 55 percent of all Turkish males smoke, and the country ranks as the seventh most-smoking nation in the world. 

  Even if you see no polls, just a simple observation of Turkish society will show you drones of men who just sit down, smoke cigarettes, and drink tea. The tea is also an important phenomenon here. It is served in very small “light bellied” glasses, so you have refill them after a few sips. They could well be served in big-size mugs; but no, the idea is just to refill them frequently and endlessly. Therefore the tea-and-cigarette practice turns into a full time activity in itself. If you don't have much to do, it is, apparently, a good way to kill time. And if you are putting those white sugar cubes in every glass, it is a guaranteed way to put on weight.

  Whenever I go to Ankara, which is very rare, I see these tea-and-cigarette men all around, and especially at hotel lobbies. They wear dark blue or dark brown suits, carry golden or seemingly golden watches, and, yes, sit down to drink tea and smoke cigarettes. Eser Karakaş, a liberal economy professor, once wrote about such “men in the hotel lobbies of Ankara,” and curiously asked what these people do there all day. His suggestion was that these were people were waiting for a politician or a bureaucrat who would give a decision which would grant them some advantage. So, they were lobbyists of some sort. But they were not doing that by writing reports or holding conferences. Their activity was just to show up, sit down, do the tea-and-cigarette ritual, and expect some generosity from the state – the mother of all Turks.

Men without smoke:

  I used to be a bit pessimistic about the possibility of change within this stagnant culture. The political situation, such as the absolutely insane closure case opened against the incumbent AKP (Justice and Development Party), just give me the impression that that business-as-usual will go on Turkey for quite some time.

  But despite all the efforts to keep business-as-usual intact, there is indeed change in Turkish society, and that ultimately influences the state as well. This ban on smoking is a testimony to that change. It has been welcomed by a greater enthusiasm than what I would have hoped for. Even the leaders of our political parties, who are constantly at war with each other, agreed to appear on a campaign which supports the ban and promotes a smoke-free environment. (Well, with one exception: Deniz Baykal, not too surprisingly, turned out to be the only one who refused to join the campaign.)

  Anyway, welcome to smoke-free Turkey. I hope it will indeed be so. If I see violators, I won't refrain from calling for stronger law enforcement. Let the state's authority be of some real use.