While foreign travelers are allowed to move freely in Turkey, the government under President Erdogan has ordered strict curfews for locals.
Ankara – In order to protect the Turkish economy and reduce the number of corona cases in Turkey, the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has issued strict exit restrictions. People are initially only allowed on the streets until May 17th for urgent reasons such as shopping or visiting the doctor. With this measure, the government wants to reduce the daily new infections with the coronavirus, which were still more than 60,000 cases per day in mid-April. The problem behind it: Because the country’s economy depends on tourism, which slumped by around 70 percent last year, the rules only apply to locals but not to travelers.
The consequence of this, as reported by the German press agency, are scenes that seem absurd. A Turkish man in the Datca holiday region was recently punished for going swimming. Ukrainian tourists: inside, on the other hand, remained unmolested. Like a ban on the sale of alcohol during the lockdown, the regulation is causing resentment among the Turkish population. The exemption has advantages for vacationers.
Erdogan’s special regulation for travelers: Turks react with cynicism
In Istanbul’s old town, for example, travelers have the space between the famous Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque to themselves. The police control access. It’s unusually quiet: the chirping of birds instead of traffic noise and calls from hawkers. Vacationers: inside take photos in front of soft pink blossoming trees. Artem (28) from Ukraine is downright enthusiastic. “It’s wonderful,” he says.
It is his first time in Turkey with his girlfriend Karin and he is happy that they have decided to come during the lockdown. This is simply less going on. “It’s a blessing because we can walk wherever we want, see all the sights and take all of the photos,” he says. But he understands that this is not necessarily well received by the locals.
The Turks react on social media with wit and cynicism to the controversial lockdown regulation, but criticism of the president is now raining. Erdogan has to face the charge of having himself to blame for the situation of the past corona wave, among other things because he held party congresses in packed halls. The number of cases is now falling again and, according to official information, was most recently below 20,000 a day. Erdogan wants to push the number below 5000 cases per day so that the health system and economy in Turkey can recover in the long term.
The population is currently suffering from high inflation of around 17 percent. Food in particular is becoming more and more expensive. According to a survey by the opinion research institute Metropoll in April, around 27 percent of those questioned said that they could not cover their basic needs with their income.
Vacation in Turkey: Foreign Minister promotes summer vacation
Last week, during a visit to Berlin, the Turkish Foreign Minister urged Germans to take summer holidays in Turkey. Mevlüt Cavusoglu promised everyone who travelers could see will be vaccinated by the end of May – and this caused even more frustration. The vaccination campaign in Turkey started at a fast pace, but is now slow.
“We sometimes feel like refugees in our own country,” says Durukan (23), who sells tickets for city tours on the Galata Bridge. Many have the feeling that their own citizens are not being taken seriously. He is divided on the exemption for tourists. “If this special arrangement didn’t exist, I would be unemployed, but of course it’s not good for our health,” he says. For example, the obligation to present a negative PCR test upon entry has been lifted for 15 countries.
The lockdown is unfair anyway. There are many exemptions. Anyone who knows someone in the authorities can also easily get a permit to move around freely. In the end, the lockdown gap does not run between tourists and locals, but, as so often, between those who have money and connections and those who are poor. (Sandra Kathe with dpa)
