Is This Parody or Prudence? How Turkey’s Coronavirus War Goes Wrong
In scenes reminiscent of dystopian novels or films, Turkey’s panic-stricken citizens flocked to stores to stockpile food after authorities imposed a two-day curfew in 31 provinces.
Turkey’s monthlong excruciating efforts to keep a deadly virus under control has fallen victim to a mind-blowing blunder: sending panic-stricken citizens to markets and stores en masse for stockpiling food after declaring curfew without an advance warning. But as the scenes of chaos enveloped the nation, observers were appalled by the absurdity of what has emerged.
If the Turkish leadership aimed to tame coronavirus, they just did the opposite on Friday with a public display of mismanagement of epic proportions. After catching wind of the curfew, people invaded stores, simply setting aside the ‘social distancing,’ an indispensable measure that somehow took hold in order to slow down the spread of the virus in urban areas.
On Friday night, commentators and citizens on social media were unanimous in their judgment: it was the moment of the coronavirus, it was the triumph of the deadly virus. Whatever Turkey did to avoid the fate of the U.S., Spain and Italy seems to have been rendered…
