 Turkey's Islamist-rooted governing party has begun a crackdown on alcohol in the local districts it controls, in a move which has sparked heavy criticism in the strictly secular country. Justice and Development Party (AKP) mayors in Ankara, the capital and symbol of the Turkish secular republic, have banned alcohol from local government cafes and restaurants citing a need to protect family values.
| They doing it for The Children™, see? |
They are also refusing to issue new sales licenses, while extensions to existing permits are getting bogged down in interminable bureaucratic delays. Turks follow a more moderate interpretation of the Koran and the sale and consumption of alcohol is legal under license.
| For now, anyway. Some places. |
The ruling AKP, an offshoot of a now-dissolved Islamist group, has not published an official directive on the issue but does not seem unduly alarmed by developments. Even Turkey's traditional aniseed-flavored liqueur, raki, has been banned in Anatolia, where some AKP mayors favor the introduction of an out-of-town "drinking zone." The deputy mayor of the northwestern town of Osmangazi, Abdullah Karadag, supports the idea of casting out the bars. "We want to create drinking streets like in Europe," Karadag told the media.
Istanbul saw the beginnings of a similar ban in local government establishments some 10 years ago, when the current Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was elected as mayor of the country's largest city. In government since 2003, Erdogan now disowns his Islamist past and has embraced Turkey's bid to join the European Union. Erdogan, who abstains from alcohol even at state banquets where he makes toasts with a glass of fruit juice, recently endorsed his mayors, saying the government had "a duty to protect young people from the dangers of alcohol." |