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TURKEY: Turks Still Smoke Despite Opposition
President Erdogan’s government opposes tobacco use, but it is not disappearing.
By Bob Crew, Tobacco International London Correspondent
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It has been observed that the president of Turkey has an almost miraculous (and perhaps mythical) ability to persuade people to quit smoking. It was claimed by Turkish media that Recep Tayyip Erdogan once convinced the Bulgarian foreign minister to give up tobacco. He has lead efforts to ban smoking in all indoor spaces, including restaurants, bars and cafes, and later, in stadiums, mosque courtyards and hospitals.
But in spite of all these anti-smoking regulations in that country by the Erdogan government, it is clear that a lot of Turks are still smoking a lot of tobacco products.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip during his official visit to Ukraine in October, 2017.
Photo: Bigstock / palinchak
The Turkish Statistics Institution (TSI) tells us that “52.8 percent never smoke and have never done so.” But this leaves a very sizeable market of some 48 percent of Turks for homegrown or imported cigarettes. “42.4 percent” of that group “do not plan to quit,” so there is, evidently, a long-term rather than short-term market here.
Since “94.5 percent” of those that do smoke report that they have “noticed the health warnings on cigarette packages,” we may assume that this is also a fearless and cheerfully fatalistic market of smokers who don’t much care about lung cancer and all the other well-publicized smoking-related diseases and dangers. This will appear as a sizeable long-term market to many producing countries, especially tobacco companies from the United States, Britain, Europe and Japan. But they are taking on local Turkish players who have the advantage of price on their side, since they are cheaper than the imported brands.
The proverbial smoking Turk
What does smoking like a Turk mean and where does this saying come from?
In my experience in mainland Turkey and also the offshore island of Turkish Northern Cyprus, ‘smoking like a Turk’ means chain-smoking like a chimney, night and day, right round the clock. In Turkey, one cannot fail to see millions of Turks men and women, young and old, all smoking like the proverbial chimneys!
They smoke in high streets and side streets, back alleys and in all sorts of other public spaces. But not in restaurants, bars, hotels, clubs, supermarkets or shopping malls, or on public transport, in each and all of which places smoking is strictly banned. Or on a number of tourist beaches or in swimming pools either that are frequented by foreign tourists (but not all beaches and swimming pools where one does see Turks smoking and flicking their ash all over the place!). And they smoke with a passion all day long and night long.
They also smoke from their traditional hookah hubble-bubble water pipes (with substances other than—or additional to—tobacco!) which is really smoking like a Turk. So with all this and more smoking going on among some 48 percent per cent of the population with no plans to quit any time soon, it seems clear that smoking is still widely in evidence in Turkey and Turkish North Cyprus, where tobacco products are a lot cheaper than elsewhere because they have not been taxed out of existence as they generally have in Britain, the US and Europe.
For these reasons, this image of smoking in Turkey is one that has not gone away and does not look like it is going away in the near or perhaps even distant future, even though the Erdogan government philosophy opposes smoking and is cracking down.
But for the half (more or less) of the Turkish population that is avidly smoking, it would be, we might say, an unpleasant Cold Turkey for them to have to quit. Unless or until that occurs, one can say for sure that Turkey is still ‘smoking like a Turk’ and living up to its image still.
A Brief History of Turkish Tobacco
By all accounts, Turkish (also called Balkan or Oriental tobacco) is a highly aromatic, small-leafed variety of tobacco which is sun-cured, in that extremely hot part of the world. That area corresponds more or less to modern Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, and Turkey, where it is chiefly though not entirely grown on the Black Sea coast. All the areas now growing Oriental were at one time part of the Ottoman (or Turkish) Empire. There is also some growth of Turkish in Egypt, South Africa and elsewhere.
A tobacco field in Vezirkoeprue, Turkey. Turkish leaf, due to its small size, is the most laborintensive of all tobacco types to harvest and process.
Photo: Bigstock / hmarq
The name “Turkish” (Turk means ‘strong man’) refers to the Ottoman Empire, which from the collapse of the Roman Empire in Ancient Greek Byzantium eventually ruled all before it including the historic tobacco-production areas of that part of the world, until the late 19th/early 20th century, when the empire came tumbling down at the hands of the Allies at the end of World War Two (Turkey, having backed the wrong German side not once, but twice!), and notably at the hands of the British and French naval fleets, as well as the British Army in Arabia that had been colonized by the Turks until the Brits turned up on the scene to upset their apple cart.
It is against this Ottoman background that many if not most of the early brands of Turkish cigarettes, pipe tobacco and cigars were manufactured, a goodly number of which remain in production to this day.
Turkish tobacco is sun-cured, and this is what is supposed to make it much more aromatic and tasty, and more acidic than air or smoke-cured tobacco, and arguably more suitable for cigarette production (I am not a smoker and have never smoked it, but this is what I hear).
Traditionally Turkish tobacco has had the reputation of being a much milder flavor than other tobaccos, containing less nicotine and fewer carcinogens than other varieties, but there is not, as yet, any World Health Organization confirmation of this. If there is, do let me know. I am all ears.
When the Camels Were Coming
Whilst cigarettes containing only Turkish tobacco—like Murad, Helmar, Balkan Sobranie and/or those supplied by urban tobacconists like Fribourg & Treyer, or by Sullivan Powell in London—are long gone, other Turkish-containing blends still persist.
The Turkish leaf industry owes much of its current markets to a brand developed near the beginning of World War I.
In the years just prior to the war, Richard Joshua Reynolds and his chemists were looking for a new recipe for blending cigarettes. The cigarette brands that were most popular at the time were those whose blends contained mostly or entirely Oriental.
Other popular brands were made up entirely of flue-cured Virginia, and still others were a mix of Oriental and flue-cured. Reynolds and his assistants decided to take the Oriental/Virginia blend and modify it to their needs.
They settled on a blend that contained about half flue-cured and about 10 percent Oriental, which they needed to include for its spicy flavor and aromatic character to a cigarette.
But it was expensive since it had to be imported from overseas. So Reynolds turned to domestic burley, which cost less and was easily available and brought with it an outstanding capacity to absorb flavoring.
That characteristic made it possible for Reynolds to use burley that was flavored—or “cased” as it was called then—to provide substitute flavor elements for those he lost when he cut back on Oriental.
Reynolds named his new brand Camel, evoking a Mid East scenario. and on its pack he said it was made with “Turkish and domestic tobaccos.” The rest is history.
It is said that Turkish tobacco plants—which usually have a greater number of leaves than other types which are smaller sized—grow this way because of the differences in climate, soil, cultivation, and also treatment methods, of course, and that these plants have also—of course again— stood the long test of time.
The Ottoman people developed their own methods of growing tobacco, farming and using their own tobacco flavors and products in the long reach of time. These Ottomans also developed different methods of consuming tobacco, including their famous hubble-bubble hookah.
Outlook for Turkish Tobacco
In January of 2018, the organizers of the Tobacco Workers Conference held that year in Myrtle Beach, S.C., devoted a session of its program to a report on Turkish leaf’s prospects in the world market.
Turkish tobacco, it was noted, is characterized by small plants, very small cured leaf compared to most other types and a relatively low need for nutrients. It is not topped, so it has a much larger number of leaves than most other types.
Some Turkish is still transplanted by hand, a very laborious process. Most is mechanically transplanted, using setters. The plant spacing is five to seven centimeters.
Plant populations are much higher than for flue-cured or burley.
A local woman gathering tobacco leaves for drying in Adiyaman, Turkey.
Photo: Bigstock / can yalcin
Harvest is done mainly by “priming,” according to material provided by Universal Leaf. Individual leaves are removed from the growing plant as they mature and ripen in the field, starting with the lowest leaves and moving up the stalk over a five- to nine-week period. Freshly harvested leaves are normally sewn onto strings or sticks and cured in sundrenched frames, often with clear plastic coverings to increase heat and reduce water damage from dews or rainfall. It is harvested leaf by leaf, and it is cured on strings in the sun. It is very important that the tobacco contain no tangled leaf. Turkish tobacco has a much milder flavor and contains less nicotine and fewer carcinogens than other varieties.
There is still a place for Oriental in the world market. Oriental brings aroma and taste to a cigarette, and it balances the sharpness in cigarette smoke. Oriental is now used primarily in American-blend cigarettes and in pipe tobacco, though at one time cigarettes that were all-Oriental cigarettes were popular.
High price a barrier
Now, as 100 years ago, the cost of Turkish is high relative to other types. That is becoming a problem, since there is a limit to what the market will pay.
One reason for the high cost of Turkish is that it is the most labor-intensive of all tobacco types, and for the future, mechanization is seriously needed.
One bright note: Some Turkish is being used in the IQOS brand of heatnot-burn products. There might be possibilities for increased use of Turkish leaf in reduced risk products.
