Monday, 3 June 2013

From Turkey With Love

It looks like there are going to be some very cheap holiday deals to Turkey at your local First Choice or Thomas Cook store soon.
Britons warned to steer clear of Turkey as 1,700 protesters arrested after riots rock the country for a third day
This sort of thing happens from time to time - and from more time to more time - over there. It's generally short-lived once things calm down, though.

But then, why take the risk now that their government has gone nuts?
Turkish Parliament adopts alcohol restrictions, bans sale between 10 pm and 6 am
“No one can be forced to drink or not to drink. This is a religious and ideological imposition,” Musa Çam, a deputy from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) said. “This is not a struggle against the ills of alcohol but an attempt to re-design the society according to their beliefs and lifestyle,” he added. 
Additionally, all liquor bottles sold would have to display warning signs about the harms of alcohol, again similar to those found on cigarette packages.
Slippery slope, anyone?
In TV series, films and music videos, images that glorify the consumption of alcohol will be prohibited. Images of alcohol would be blurred, the same way as cigarettes are being blurred at the moment.
Alcoholic beverages will not be allowed to be purchased from vending machines. Beverages could not be sold from see-through shop windows and cannot be sold to be consumed outside the facility. 
Smoking while driving is also prohibited.
Hmm. Probably best plump for somewhere else this year then. Greece looks a far better bet for relaxing away from authoritarians and for not being blown up, I reckon.

I'm sure Turkish politicians will be dead happy to see their tourist trade shift to their ever-loving neighbours. How nice of them to willingly donate it to assist with Greece's financial problems, eh?


Lysistrata Eleftheria said...

Hehehe! Yes, Greece will welcome visitors who smoke and drink with open arms, huge friendly smiles... and ashtrays on the tables. Like old times.

The Thought Gang said...

I dunno. There might be a win in this for Turkey.. Sharia tourism. And I'm not being facetious. If I were a concerned Turkish hotelier then it's an angle I'd be looking at.

It's catastrophic failure of liberty and democracy, sure.. but there are plenty of people who'll be attracted by a country devoid of all those Brits who'll now be elsewhere.

nisakiman said...

You have to love the Greeks. They don't get everything right, but they sure as hell don't like finger-waggers telling them what to do.

Here's another one:

It’s common in Greece for unpopular laws to be violated without recourse.


Dick_Puddlecote said...

Fair point. A bit rich that they want to move into westerners' playgrounds though, haven't they already got Tehran and most of the arab nations? ;)