What’s happening in Turkey?
Dramatic scenes from Turkey as the government puts strict restrictions on all movement in the 30 large cities of the country, with the addition of Zonguldak. This curfew period, announced late evening on Friday the 10th of April, will last 48 hours, starting Friday at midnight, ending Sunday at midnight.
As of the 10th of April, the current Coronavirus case and a death toll that has been announced by the government are 47.029 confirmed cases, 1.006 deaths, 1.667 patients in the ICU and over 300.000 tests that have been done throughout the country.
The news of the curfew was announced Friday around 11 pm from the Interior Ministry website. Shortly after the long lines began to form in markets around the country, and social distancing became the last of people's worries.
This video, re-posted by various twitter users, was recorded on Friday the 10th of April, in Istanbul Beyoglu, a district of Istanbul. The bakery can be found here on Google Maps. The circulating video shows the chaos of people who were trying to get bread from the bakery. In the video, a man covering his mouth with his hands can be seen, while crowds of people pile on to each other.
The panic started after the news began to circulate through social media. People in WhatsApp groups, Twitter and Facebook began to share the news of the curfew. An explanation from the Communications Director, Fahrettin Altun’s twitter account, came at 11:17 pm, explaining that the pharmacies and essential stores that sell basic needs products would remain open during the curfew. However, it was still not clear whether people would be able to go outside to the stores.
The announcement came as a shock to many people, including the Mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu who late Friday evening, posted a video on Twitter telling everyone to be calm. Explaining that he was not informed of the curfew, and adding that it was not the right way to do it. He once again signaled that there is a communication problem between the national government and the local governments.
Ekrem Imamoglu has explained numerous times that there is a disconnect between the national government and the local, opposition, governments. Stating that he was not able to contact them when needed, and finally today, that he was not informed about the curfew that was put in place late Friday evening.
Many of his social media followers accused him of using this situation as political material, and asking why the local government was not ready for a curfew when Ekrem Imamoglu himself was asking for a much longer restriction to be implemented in Istanbul. While others argue that the main issue is how the national government dealt with the situation, not informing the local governments and not consolidating with them.
Mayors of other large cities such as Ankara and Izmir, who, like Imamoglu, were also elected as opposition candidates, have shown their concerns on their Twitter pages, asking the people outside to go home, promising that the local governments will provide bread and all other emergency needs during the curfew.
The curfew started Friday at midnight, however many Twitter users posted pictures and videos of streets full of people in lines and traffic jams after the curfew had started.
The traffic jam seems to have been caused by an accident, according to Yandex Maps, however, the time of the incident shows that the city was not ready for a curfew. The video was posted at 12:06 am, after the curfew had officially started.
The announcement issued by the Interior Ministry states some guidelines as to what will remain open. Package delivery services, 1 petrol station to every 50.000 people, bakeries that bake bread, animal shelters, all production facilities of medical equipment, mandatory public work (nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, etc.), private and public medical institutions and pharmacies and all-natural gas, electricity and large plants will remain open. However many questions are left unanswered.
According to the list, grocery stores, water distributors and other essential stores might have to be shut down. There is no clear understanding of what will happen in the next 48 hours or who and how the curfew will be enforced. However, what is clear is that the panic and the chaos that can be seen in many videos posted on social media will raise the already rising number of COVID-19 cases in the weeks to come.