Public law

Turkey has further toughened COVID-19 measures with full weekend lockdowns and weeknight curfews as the number of coronavirus cases continues to increase across the country.

"A general curfew will be applied every weeknight from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.," President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced following a cabinet meeting in the capital Ankara on Nov. 30.

Police interrupted a Sunday Mass in a northern Greek village and fined a priest 1,500 euros ($1,780) for allowing two people to attend the service.

They also arrested the priest's 30-year-old son and one of the two worshippers, who they said attacked the police officers.

What explains this shift, from being the region that initially had among the fewest cases in Europe, to a surge?

Some country-specific reasons might explain individual cases, such as recent elections in Serbia and North Macedonia, or the government crisis in Kosovo, or protests in Montenegro and Serbia. However, none provides an overarching regional perspective.

During a specialized police operation conducted on June 4 by officers of the Search Sector, a 38-year-old man was found and detained in the capital. He has been declared wanted by a European arrest warrant, and a red bulletin has been issued by Interpol for his detention at the request of the authorities in Athens, Greece. 

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said elderly people over the age of 65 and young people under 20 will have to "wait a little more" for restrictions to ease.

The Turkish public largely complied with the four-day lockdown taken across the country, but some 48,000 people violated the curfews rules, the Interior Ministry has said.

The country imposed the nationwide curfew during Eid al-Fitr on May 23 to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Turkey's juniors got their first chance to venture outside on May 13 after weeks of partial curfew, under relaxed coronavirus restrictions.

According to an Interior Ministry circular sent to governor's offices across Turkey, people aged 14 and under were granted the chance to go outside on May 13 between 11.00 a.m. and 15.00 p.m. local time.

The supreme national courts are the domestic source of legal authority. This absolute authority of theirs was, though, challenged upon the formation of the autonomous legal entity of the European Union, guaranteed by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

Turkey on May 7 eased curfew restrictions for people over the age of 65, those with chronic illnesses and young people under 20 years old.

In a statement, the country's Interior Ministry said that people over 65 years old would be allowed to leave their homes, remaining within walking distance and wearing masks, on May 10 between 11.00 a.m. 3:00 p.m. local time (0800-1200GMT).

Turkey lifted a 72-hour curfew as of midnight on May 3, which had been imposed in 31 provinces to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The government enforced its fourth weekend-long stay-at-home order, which included the May 1 International Labour Day holiday.