When he became Turkey's head of state in August after over a decade as prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to be an active president. But few could have imagined this would extend to personally policing Turkey's anti-smoking legislation on a busy Istanbul street.
Erdogan noticed a man smoking a cigarette on the balcony of a cafe as he visited a pedestrian street in Istanbul's working-class Esenler district after a speech on Sunday. All seemed to be going well as Erdogan waved to well-wishers and chatted with his entourage. But then he spotted the man smoking on a covered balcony on the second floor of a cafe, footage posted online showed.
Erdogan stopped and from the street wagged his finger at the man, telling the offender he was violating the law. "There is a penalty for that," Erdogan told the smoker, who was not shown in the footage. Erdogan beckoned over the mayor of Esenler, asking: "Where are the police?" The mayor smiled, before realising the president was deeply serious.
"You know it, but this is wrong," Erdogan said. "He blatantly behaved rudely." "This shameless guy is sitting there and keeps smoking even after the president tells him not to do so." "It's the month of Muharram, for God's sake!" he said, referring to an Islamic holy month. Istanbul mayor Kadir Topbas sought to ease tensions by suggesting that the man could promise not to smoke again, but Erdogan refused to calm down and ordered the police to fine the man on the spot.
Police fined the man 90 Turkish liras ($40 or 30 euros) after Erdogan left, Turkish media said. In 2009, the Islamic-rooted government introduced a law imposing a smoking ban in all public buildings, cafes, bars and restaurants, including some covered outdoor spaces.
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