After the Turkish government surprisingly issued a lockdown for 31 cities and provinces on Friday, criticism from the opposition is hailing. The curfew, which is limited to Saturday and Sunday, did a lot of damage because it was announced at too short notice and caused panic unnecessarily, is the tenor at the weekend. The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ineffectually outstripped its efforts to curb COVID-19 proliferation through social distancing and voluntary exit restrictions. The government, on the other hand, thanked the population: only a few people have so far violated the exit ban.
Although the government at the beginning of the crisis gave the impression that Turkey was well prepared for the pandemic, according to official figures, more than 52,000 people have now tested positive for COVID-19. More than 1000 people have died. Since the test rate in the country with 83 million inhabitants is still too low, it must be assumed that the number of unreported cases is high, as representatives of the Turkish medical profession have publicly stated.
Even supermarkets had to close at the weekend
The curfew was far-reaching: in addition to bakeries, pharmacies, retirement homes and a few other public institutions such as the police and fire brigade, almost all public facilities, shops, and even supermarkets had been closed. It was unclear on Sunday whether the curfew would end at midnight or could be extended. President Spokesman Ibrahim Kalın said: “The curfew can be repeated.”
A scientist from the Ministry of Health’s Corona Committee emphasized, according to the newspaper Hurriyet: “Of course, there may be further curfews in the coming weekends. The best way to prevent the spread of the disease is to prevent contact between people.”
The lockdown does more damage than the virus itself, the opposition criticizes
The opposition focused its criticism on the practical implementation of the measures. Engin Ozkoc, politician of the social democratic CHP, published pictures of crowds of people in front of supermarkets on Twitter and accused the government of President Erdogan of doing more damage with the surprising lockdown than the coronavirus itself. He tweeted: “You are unable to govern. ” Oguz Kaan Salıcı, one of the CHP’s deputy chiefs, accused the government of having overthrown all of the social-distancing behaviors that were painstakingly implemented by the population within a few hours.
These allegations are particularly important because the decision on the curfew according to the CHP is said to have been made on Thursday. The lockdown was not announced until the night of April 10 and three hours before it came into effect. This had led to mass accumulations in supermarkets and chaotic panic buying. The pro-Kurdish opposition party, the HDP, accused the government of “being responsible for a sharp increase in the number of corona cases and corona deaths.”
There was also criticism from those who have to implement the measures. Immediately after the announcement, Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu announced that even he, as head of a metropolis of 16 million inhabitants, had not been informed in advance. That same night, he said, “We don’t even know what services we have to offer in Istanbul tomorrow.” Government policies only create “more panic and confusion.” Imamoglu himself had asked for exit restrictions some time ago. The government had rejected this.n
