VIDEO: Turkish President Erdoğan scolds smoker, calls in security
Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄan took time out of a stroll through Istanbulâs Esenler district on Nov. 2 to take umbrage with a man smoking a cigarette in a nearby café before ordering the municipal patrol to fine him.
âThere is a penal sanction [for smoking in closed areas],â ErdoÄan said as he visited a pedestrianized street in Esenler after he noticed a man smoking a cigarette on the second floor of a cafe.
âI know,â Esenler Mayor Tevfik Göksu replied before ErdoÄan responded: âYou know it, but this is wrong. Where is the [municipal patrol]?â
Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Kadir TopbaÅ tried to defuse the tensions by suggesting that the man âcould promise that he wonât smoke againâ and the issue could be closed, but ErdoÄan rejected this proposal, too.
âPromise?â the Turkish president asked, insisting that the renegade smoker had to be penalized on the spot.
âHe blatantly behaved rudely. You see, this guy is just sitting there and keeps smoking even after the president tells him not to,â he said.
Main opposition Republican Peopleâs Party (CHP) Esenler Youth Branch head Ozan IÅık, who was next to the smoker in question, suggested in a tweet that ErdoÄan might have been angered by their refusal to wave.
âHe turned to us and [when] we didnât wave, he shouted, âNo smoking indoors,ââ IÅık said.
Deniz Ayvaz, a co-owner of the cafe, denied reports that the person was fined. "Municipal patrol officers came, but couldn't find the person. Only health officials in the district can issue fines. I don't know if they will do it today," he said.
Any business that permits its customers to smoke in closed areas can be punished with fines...
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