Government's opacity makes Turkey’s war on COVID-19 harder

Keen to minimize the political and economic repercussions of the coronavirus outbreak, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has pursued a policy of opacity, keeping the public from fully grasping the graveness of the threat.
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Officers and relatives prepare to bury a person who died from the coronavirus as other new graves are prepared at a cemetery opened by the government for victims of the pandemic, Istanbul, March 27, 2020. - BULENT KILIC/AFP via Getty Images
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Kadri Gürsel
@KadriGursel
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While gradually toughening measures against the COVID-19 outbreak in Turkey, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears bent on opacity in communicating with the public, a policy it has followed since confirming the country’s first case on March 11.

On March 27, Erdogan announced the toughest restrictions yet, canceling all international flights, banning residents from traveling between cities via public transport and planes unless granted permission by local authorities and closing picnic sites on weekends, among other measures.

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