An appeal by coffee and tea shop owners in Turkey to exempt them from tobacco legislation that bans smoking in indoor places was turned down on 6 January 2011.

The cultural importance attached to Turkish coffee houses has made them a focal point in the struggle between proponents and opponents of the smoking ban. The claimants tried to argue the unconstitutionality of anti-smoking laws based on their damaging impact on an important cultural and social aspect of Turkish life.

However, this argument, which the tobacco industry has tried to use elsewhere, did not convince the court, and it eventually rejected the appeal in a triumph for tobacco control proponents. If the appeal had been successful, the smokefree part of Turkey’s tobacco control law would have been in jeopardy.

There has been widespread resistance to Turkey’s anti-smoking legislation from the tobacco industry and its front groups and allies among the media and the hospitality sector, including restaurants and cafes. Nonetheless, a smoking ban has been in force since July 2009 through the efforts of Bloomberg Initiative partners: World Lung Foundation; World Health Organization; the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids; and The Union’s grantees, the Tobacco Control Coalition, managed by the Turkish Thoracic Society and the Ministry of health.

Among Turkey’s population of approximately 78 million, 51% of men smoke. Although the percentage of women who smoke is still low, the upward trend in women’s smoking has become a rising cause for concern, as it is occurring among educated women, in contrast with most industrialised nations where smoking is lower among the better educated. The hope is that with evermore rigorous anti-smoking legislation, better awareness-raising campaigns and strict enforcement of the law, the tide will turn towards an eventual reduction of these figures.