The main topic of conversation in Turkey these days is neither the Nov. 1 elections nor President Recep Tayyip Erdogan nor the anticipated hike in the minimum wage. The main topic, especially in Turkey's ever-busy favorite neighborhood pubs, is something else: bootleg raki.

The aniseed-flavored national drink has joined the bootleg market, and deadly counterfeit production has repeatedly made the headlines over the past decade. The latest wave of deaths began Oct. 22 with a person who perished in the hospital after drinking bootleg raki. As of Nov. 5, the number of fatalities stood at 26 amid rumors the death toll is actually higher.

Serkan Okansoy was one of those hospitalized in Istanbul after drinking the counterfeit liquor. The remarks he made to reporters after being discharged suggests he was in fact a knowledgeable boozer — so much so that he had warned his friends that bootleg raki could hit the market after local shops ran out of the cheap Bulgarian-made raki the neighborhood men used to imbibe. Yet the 58-year-old ended up buying the bootleg product himself. After opening the bottle, he detected an unusual scent and put it away, but only until the following day when he surrendered to temptation. “Suddenly people’s faces turned white as if they wore masks. The television screen was white as well. I called for an ambulance, but my sight was so bad that I had dialed the wrong number. Then I called the police, who took me to hospital. I got off cheap,” he said.

Okansoy said the treatment in the hospital involved drinking a good deal of genuine raki. In remarks to Al-Monitor, physician Omer Ayata explained how this curious treatment works. “In bootleg raki, methyl alcohol is the substance that causes poisoning. It is broken down by a liver enzyme, and the released particles are toxic. The same enzyme breaks down also normal alcohol, i.e., ethyl alcohol. When you give ethyl alcohol to a person who has consumed methyl alcohol, the two compete for the enzyme. And the enzyme gets busy with breaking down the normal alcohol rather than the methyl alcohol. Thus, the breaking down of the methyl alcohol is prevented.”