Smoking, a Leading Habit in Istanbul
Istanbul is a country where smoking cigarettes is a leading habit among its inhabitants. In this country a ban on lighting up indoors will take effect on July 19, a change that will certainly delight smoke-averse travelers.
With one of the highest smoking rates in the world, Turkey isn’t exactly a haven for antismoking activists. The dense smoke of cigarettes often seems like a natural part of the country’s landscape. And the expression “smoke like a Turk” has even introduced the lexicon of several European languages as a way to describe an excessive smoker.
But clients and business proprietors are uncertain of how or even whether, the no-smoking rules will be in use. Turkey remains a main manufacturer of tobacco, cigarettes are relatively acceptable, and towns like Istanbul are dotted with smoked-filled water-pipe cafes where young and old gather for to puff aromatic smoke, play backgammon and catch up with friends.
Umit Unal, manager of the Parma Café, explained: “Nothing is clear. I really don’t know what to do, or what to expect when the law goes into effect. I’m supposing that we’ll have to stop people from smoking inside, but for now, nobody has a plan.”
Now at Parma, one of several hookah cafes in a block-long stretch of them, people sit under stripy awnings or in the open air, sipping tea and inhaling.
But when the weather will turn cold, then nobody knows what would happen with smoking and smokers.
Unal, which is a non-smoker too, added: “I guess we’ll have to ban smoking indoors for sure. It’s harmful to your health, but this is a tradition from Ottoman times. We’ll have to wait and see.”
Turkey is attaching more than a dozen countries, the most recent being its neighbor, Greece, in trying to ban smoking in bars and restaurants.
An incipient phase of the Turkish law took hold on May 19, 2008, making it a crime to smoke on public transportation or in most public places. Phase two takes effect this month and covers restaurants, bars, night clubs and even kirathanes, old-fashioned, male-only coffee houses. The anti-smoking legislations also call for designated smoking sections at places like sports arenas and in prisons.
Turkish officials say cigarettes represent a serious health concern for the country of 71 million, where some 60 percent of men, 20 percent of women, and 11.7 percent of schoolchildren smoke. On the European continent, the average smoking rate hovers around 30 percent, though Greece’s rate is 45 percent.
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