Kemal Kirdar, 55, owns a souvenir store in the Sultanahmet area of Istanbul.
He sells fridge magnets, ceramics, colored lamps and T-shirts that say, “I love Istanbul.”
“There are fewer tourists, and business is slow. We had to close down for three months.”
“There are fewer tourists,” Kirdar said, “and business is slow. We had to close down for three months.”
That’s in the wake of the pandemic and lockdowns to contain the coronavirus. This week, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced a full lockdown, the strictest so far as the country combats a surge of COVID-19 infections and deaths.
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The official COVID-19-related death toll in Turkey stands at roughly 39,000. The Health Ministry reported more than 37,000 new cases on Monday.
The lockdown took effect on April 29 and goes until May 17. People will have to stay home, except for essential shopping and emergency medical care. Schools will be closed and all travel between cities will require official approval. Officials also banned alcohol sales, which prompted some social media users to show their disapproval online using the hashtag “don’t touch my alcohol.”
The announcement of a full lockdown for nearly three weeks is bad news for many businesses. Istanbul, a city that relies heavily on tourism, has already lost so much business this year because of the pandemic.
The latest data from the country’s tourism office show that the number of tourists who arrived in Turkey in February 2021 dropped about 69% compared to the previous year.
Limited support
Kirdar worries about the fact that this week’s restrictions came with no stimulus package.
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Last year, the government offered some assistance, including the 60% payment of staff salaries for about 300,000 small businesses for three months and some relief on tax and electricity bills.
But Kirdar said none of that reached him. He said every time he is forced to shut down, he loses money. Not to mention that he has to pay the rent and all of the other bills.
He used to employ four workers but he had to let them go and asked his son to help out at the store.
The lockdown is also coming at one of the busiest times of the year for businesses. Bayram or the Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan. It’s a time of celebration when people shop and families get together.
Kirdar is missing out on this income, too.
“We usually get a lot of local tourists around the Ramadan holiday. But not this year.”
“We usually get a lot of local tourists around the Ramadan holiday,” he said. “But not this year.”
According to the World Bank, Turkey responded quickly to the pandemic. But the shock to household incomes could mean the country’s poverty rate will climb from about 10% to 14%.
‘I miss my job’
As soon as Erdoğan made the lockdown announcement this week, there was a rush in Istanbul.
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Cars clogged the streets near the Grand Bazaar. Shoppers darted from one store to another trying to stock up on groceries for the two-week lockdown.
Tuncay Öner, 57, has worked at a spice store in the Grand Bazaar for 25 years. He says in all that time, he has never seen the place looking like this — one day quiet and the next, people rushing to the store.
Öner was planning to travel to the province to visit relatives for Eid. But now, with the new restrictions, he said he is going to stay home with his wife and three children.
“We had a lot of fun with the children. But it’s too much,” he said with a chuckle. “Everybody wants to go to the school or we want to go to work. And we have like, 15 to 20 more days [of lockdown].”
Öner said his customers are usually good at wearing masks, and that when he sees videos of people burning their masks in protest in the US or European countries, he is confused.
“I think the mask is for our safety. That’s why we wear it. No problem,” he said.
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Aziz Raguig works at the same store. He said the best part about his job is meeting people from different cultures. But these encounters have been in short supply recently.
“I miss my job. I miss my activity. I miss lots of things.”
“I miss my job. I miss my activity. I miss lots of things,” he said.
Raguig, who is from Morocco, loves showing tourists what Turkey has to offer.
“The tourists invest a lot of time and money to come here,” he said, “to find a new perspective. I see it as my job to help them with that.”
“But I, too, learn from interacting with people from different cultures,” he went on to say.
Bringing the numbers down
Despite the challenges that the lockdown brings, some people are hopeful that it will help the country recover from COVID-19 sooner than later.
For restaurant owner Hüseyin Güvenç, the lockdown is necessary to get Turkey back on track.
“The number of cases are too high,” Güvenç said, sitting at a table in his family-run restaurant, a caricature painting of him on the wall behind him.
Although the sacrifices he and others have had to make are painful — he had to pare down some employees’ hours to retain everyone — he is willing to do whatever it takes to do his part to curb COVID-19.
“The government has to take action to bring the numbers down. Hopefully, the lockdown will help,” he added.
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