Activists in Turkey criticize government’s gain from large amounts of lockdown breaches in Istanbul
Istanbul – North-Press Agency
In the past two days, activists on social media have criticized the fines imposed by Istanbul on those breaching the lockdown, which amounted to more than 3,000,000 TL.
They considered that the imposition of fines is unfair to violators, especially since most of the residents have been affected by the coronavirus crisis and the lockdown decisions.
In a tweet last Saturday, Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya announced that “within the framework of the applied lockdown in Istanbul today, 1,405 administrative transactions were carried out by our security forces, amounting to fines of 3,239,015 TL. 131 administrative measures were implemented by the Turkish Border Guards (Jandarma) and fines of 340,242 TL were imposed.”
Tweeting in response to the governor of Istanbul: "These fines are very heavy, even fining us with 300 TL is very stressful, knowing that we have not left our homes for a month."
Others demanded that "those fines go to the needy, the poor and the elderly, and not to others."
Meanwhile, some of them cynically said, "This money is more than the money than our President Erdogan raised for his campaign," while one of them indicated that, “although we locked down and stayed home for 45 days, we received fines."
Others described these high fines as stealing from the people under the pretext of coronavirus during the days of the two-day ban. However, the Turkish authorities have not commented on the criticism.
They added that “since the government claims to fear for its citizens, why does it not impose another punishment instead of fining them with money, especially since the labor market has been suspended for two months, and it was better to place the violator in a dedicated quarantine if it was afraid for him, as it claims.”
Another asked, "I respect reason and right thinking, but is it not better, since it is a country that cares about the health of its citizens, especially after this financial pandemic that swept all the countries of the world, instead of taking money from them, to imprison them as a precaution? Is it not better that someone who comes out of his home is indefensible from foreign parties who pay him in order to infect people according to their claim? Is this proposal not better?"
It is noteworthy that Turkish President Erdogan said, at a press conference on 27 March, that "we will not allow any Turkish citizen to suffer as a result of this crisis, whether in terms of food or medicine", which observers saw as a contradiction between these high fines and those statements.