John Pattison Lockdown in Turkey
At the same time, the children, teens and young adults up to 20 years old were also to be placed into lockdown, again until further notice and this continues as I write this just as the Eid Al Fitr holidays are about to commence. Turkey enforces these requirements with heavy fines for being outside one’s home of up to 3200/- Turkish Lira (TL) (approx. £460 at the time of the original announcement) and have issued countless fines across the country since late March. My neighbour was fined 700TL for walking her dog during April. She had walked some 200 metres from her home before being stopped by the police who then took photographs and followed her back to her house before issuing the fine. To reinforce the lockdown the country has also had mandatory curfews, we are in one of those as I write, this one lasting four days. During a curfew, which in the latest one applies to the entire country, only persons having essential jobs are allowed to be outside of their properties. Again, the police enforce the curfews, with both fines and potential prison sentences for the worse offenders breaking the curfew repeatedly. There has been some recent relief for myself and others in the 65+ age group as we have been allowed to take a walk locally to our properties on the last two Sundays for four hours each day and tomorrow (24th May) is also available for walking for up to six hours of freedom whilst everyone else is under the curfew.
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