[ad_1]
At 10 a.m. on Friday night, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced that a curfew would be imposed on Saturday and Sunday in the 30 largest Turkish cities. In the two hours until closing, hundreds of thousands stormed the stores. According to the opposition, by causing panic scenes without any precaution, the government could have given another impetus to the spread of the epidemic, endangering the lives of the masses.
The Home Secretary first stated that he had acted on the instructions of President Erdogan, but that on Sunday he had already taken full responsibility and submitted his resignation. No word has yet been received on whether this was accepted by Erdogan.
“In a period of devotion and thoroughness, the responsibility for enforcing the weekend’s curfew, which was entirely intended to prevent the epidemic, is mine in every respect,” wrote Soylu, who admitted that the masses of images of the crowds were “incompatible with this perfectly ordered period.” The text posted on Twitter continues in a higher tone:
“Forgive me, my holy nation, whom I never wanted to harm, and our honorable president, whom I will be faithful for the rest of my life.”
In an interview with the Turkish pro-government newspaper Hürriyet on Sunday, Soylu spoke of acknowledging and accepting his criticism of the timing of the announcement. He did not foresee that this would happen, and even based on the example of other countries, he would expect similar if the population were notified of the ban two or three days in advance. “We wanted to avoid that,” he emphasized, adding that some 250-300,000 people ran to the streets when they heard the news.
In Turkey, there is a two-day curfew in the 30 largest cities, including Istanbul and Ankara, and Zonguldak on the Black Sea coast, which is the center of Turkish coal mining and where respiratory diseases are common, to stop the infection from midnight on Friday until Sunday. The measure affects 63 million 640 thousand people.
The number of people diagnosed with the new coronavirus continued to rise to a high value of more than 4,500 per day, 4,789, to 56,956. The number of deaths this time increased from 97 to 1198. (AFP, MTI)
[ad_2]
