'Just two glasses': In Turkey, lives shattered by bootleg alcohol
"He came in a bit late on that Saturday saying he couldn't see properly," said Belgin, joint owner of the salon where he worked in the Ortakoy district, who didn't want to give her surname.
Not long after he got there, Erduan needed to sit down because he couldn't even hold a pair of scissors, she told AFP.
"He told us all he could see was whiteness so I immediately drove him to a private hospital," she said.
There, he saw an ophthalmologist who quickly realised it was a case of bootleg alcohol poisoning.
Erduan collapsed in late January, barely a week after the city was shaken by news that within just four days, 33 people had died and 29 were critically ill after drinking bootleg alcohol.
That number has since shot up to 70, with another 63 dead in the capital Ankara, Turkish media reports say. Another 36 remain in intensive care.
Erduan told the doctors he bought the vodka at a corner shop in Ortakoy, saying it was five times cheaper than the supermarket because it was imported from Bulgaria.
They gave him folic acid to try and stave off the effects of methanol, a toxic substance often found in bootleg alcohol that can cause blindness, liver damage and death.
"He was still perfectly conscious," his boss told AFP, her eyes red from crying.
Shortly afterwards, he was rushed into intensive care and intubated.
"On the fourth day, we went with his son to see him. He was totally yellow," she said, describing jaundice, another symptom of methanol poisoning.
"That evening, we heard he had died."
- 'Six hours to feel effects' -
"Nobody should have to die like that. The alcohol seemed totally legal from the packaging and the branding when in fact it came from an illegal distillery," said Erol Isik, her partner at the salon, who was clearly angry.
"Taskin didn't drink to get drunk, he wasn't an alcoholic," he said.
Speaking to AFP at his laboratory at Istanbul's Yeditepe University where he heads the toxicology department, professor Ahmet Aydin explained how lethal it can be.
"Just one glass of fake vodka made from methylated alcohol can be deadly," he said.
The difference between ethanol, which is used for making spirits, and methanol, which is used in varnishes and antifreeze, is only visible in a laboratory, he explained, showing test tubes containing the two alcohols.
"No-one can tell them apart by taste, sight or smell," he said.
"The biggest danger with methanol poisoning is that you don't feel the effects straight away. It only manifests after about six hours. If the person goes straight to hospital, they have a chance of recovering."
But it can very quickly become "too late".
"People really need to be careful," he warned, saying it was a lot easier to buy methanol than ethanol, the purchase of which is highly regulated.
"But who would drink alcohol without a proper label?" he wondered, following reports several people died after buying alcohol in half-litre water bottles from a business posing as a Turkmen restaurant in Istanbul.
– 'Alcohol is too expensive' –
Like the main opposition CHP party, Ozgur Aybas, head of the Tekel association of alcohol retailers, blames the crippling taxes imposed by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who regularly rails against drinking and smoking.
"Nowhere else in the world are there such high taxes on alcohol," he told AFP, saying people had no choice but to seek out alternatives.
Buying a litre bottle of raki, Turkey's aniseed-flavoured national liquor, from a supermarket currently costs around $35 in a country where the minimum wage is $600.
Standing in front of the now-closed shop where Taskin Erduan bought the vodka that killed him, a neighbour called Levent, who didn't give his surname, also blamed taxes.
"Alcohol is too expensive in Turkey. It costs about 100 Turkish lira to make a bottle of raki but with the tax, that becomes 1,200 lira," or the equivalent of 12-hours work at minimum wage, he raged.
Levent said he had long known the owner of the shop, describing him as "a nice guy".
But with Turkey in the grip of a severe economic crisis, he said he'd long since stopped being surprised at how far people would go to bring in a bit more cash.
"People will do anything for money. They have no shame any more."
rba/hmw/cw
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Boston Globe
Erdogan calls it an anticorruption drive. His rivals call it a political crackdown.
The arrests come at a time of uncertainty about the political future of Turkey and Erdogan, who has dominated the country's politics for more than two decades. He cannot legally run again when his current, third presidential term ends in 2028 but could seek another mandate if parliament were to call early elections, an outcome many analysts expect him to pursue. The arrests began last year but have accelerated since March, when the police arrested Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul, citing allegations of corruption, which he denies. Advertisement In the months since, the government has arrested at least 390 people in connection with investigations of alleged corruption in the Istanbul municipal government and other opposition-run cities, according to a New York Times tally based on Turkish media reports. The opposition says those arrested include current and former mayors and other municipal officials as well as representatives of companies that have worked with opposition-run city governments. Although these arrests have not led to any convictions, Erdogan said in a speech last month that government investigators were exposing 'the biggest gang of robbers in the history of the Republic.' Advertisement Opposition leaders have denied the charges and accuse Erdogan's government of weaponizing the judiciary to weaken its opponents and silence critics, some of whom have faced legal action for opposing the arrests. 'My confidence in justice, in the law, in how it is executed and investigated is gone,' said Cem Yigit Uzumoglu, an actor who played Mehmed the Conqueror in the Netflix docudrama 'Rise of Empires: Ottoman.' In an interview, he described how the police had arrested him at his home in the middle of the night in April after he posted support on social media for a boycott of government-linked companies. Prosecutors are now seeking prison sentences up to about seven years on charges that include instigating hatred in society, an accusation he called 'ridiculous.' Erdogan's governing Justice and Development Party fared poorly in nationwide municipal elections last year, largely because of anger over high inflation. Yet his geopolitical position appears strong. The civil war in neighboring Syria ended with a Turkish-friendly administration in Damascus. European countries count on his help to curb migration. And he has a warm relationship with President Donald Trump, whose secretary of state, Marco Rubio, recently ordered American diplomats to limit their comments about how other countries practice democracy. Few Western governments have spoken publicly about the arrests. Imamoglu, a star in the opposition Republican People's Party, had beat candidates backed by Erdogan for mayor of Istanbul three times, and some polls suggested he could beat Erdogan in a presidential race. The mayor's arrest came days before he officially began his presidential campaign and one day after his university suddenly annulled his undergraduate diploma, citing a decades-old irregularity. That alone could keep him from becoming the president, who is required by law to have completed higher education. Advertisement The timing of those events, which followed other cases that could temporarily bar Imamoglu from politics, led his supporters to accuse the government of seeking to knock him out of the running. The Turkish government insists that its prosecutors and courts are independent and has called on citizens to trust the authorities and not prejudge investigations. Interrogation notes and other information shared with Turkish news outlets indicate that investigators are pursuing allegations that include bribery, fraud, improper distribution of municipal contracts and solicitation of favors in exchange for construction permits. The New York Times has not been able to independently verify these details. In his address in July, Erdogan said that the investigations were free of politics and were uncovering great criminality. As this year's arrests have progressed, the government has also taken legal action against critics, using laws that rights groups say restrict freedom of speech. Last month, a student, Doruk Dorucu, tore up his diploma during a university graduation ceremony to protest the annulment of Imamoglu's diploma and what he called undue government interference in Turkish universities. In an interview, Dorucu said that the police arrested him at his home later that night. He said that he has been barred from traveling abroad while being investigated for inciting hatred among the public. 'In terms of oppression, we are in such a bad period,' he said. 'Everyone is afraid that they can be taken from their homes at dawn over one tweet or one joke they made in daily chitchat with friends.' Advertisement This article originally appeared in
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Fresh clashes erupt in Serbian capital after days of unrest
Thousands of anti-government protesters again clashed with police in Serbia's capital on Friday, as days of unrest fuelled fears of a worsening crackdown on a months-long push for early elections. After a tense stand-off between right-wing government loyalists and the larger crowd of protesters, fireworks, tear gas, and stun grenades erupted among the anti-graft demonstrators, according to an AFP journalist in the crowd. It sparked a series of clashes with riot police in central Belgrade on Friday, and marks the fourth straight night of violence between police and rival groups in the Balkan nation. Almost daily protests -- some drawing hundreds of thousands -- have gripped Serbia since November, after a railway station roof collapse crushed 16 people to death. The tragedy became a symbol of deep-rooted corruption in the Balkan nation, as frustrated demands for a transparent investigation grew into calls for early elections. The mostly peaceful demonstrations escalated this week as large groups of pro-government supporters, many masked and some armed with batons and fireworks, attacked protesters. "I don't want to live in a country of police repression," 46-year-old Zeljko from Belgrade told AFP, as he stood with protesters outside government buildings before the violence. A hundred metres away, dozens of government supporters, dressed in black T-shirts, aimed green lasers at the crowd, an apparent attempt to provoke the larger group. "They beat the people and protect criminals with crowbars. I came to say we won't accept that," Zeljko said, referring to alleged police violence against protesters. Dozens have been arrested at rallies around the country in recent days, after violence between the groups ended in the ransacking of the ruling party's offices in the northern city of Novi Sad. While opposition MPs and activists have accused pro-government "thugs" of brutal attacks, sharing images of graphic injuries sustained at the rallies. Several videos shared online showed police striking unarmed protesters with batons. In one video from Thursday night, around 20 officers surround and beat a man while he is on the ground. Police have rejected allegations of excessive force, instead accusing demonstrators of attacking their members, with over 120 officers injured in violence over the past few nights. "All those who have spent these past days spreading lies about police brutality should comment on these figures," Interior Minister Ivica Dacic told journalists on Friday. Similarly, President Aleksandar Vucic has denied that his supporters are behind the violence, instead blaming the anti-corruption movement, which he routinely labels "terrorists". But protesters told AFP they felt police were unfairly protecting Vucic's supporters while targeting the student-led movement for arrest. "We are completely powerless because the police are working with the criminals," said 52-year-old Nevena. "They've hijacked the state and we're trying to take it back." While the protests have so far led to the resignation of the prime minister and the collapse of his cabinet, Vucic remains at the helm of a reshuffled government. oz/al/dc
New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
NYC construction kingpin who funneled illegal donations to Mayor Adams' 2021 campaign apologizes to taxpayers as he gets wrist-slap sentence
A Brooklyn construction kingpin apologized to New York taxpayers Friday as he was handed a wrist-slap sentence for funneling illegal donations to Mayor Eric Adams' 2021 campaign. Erden Arkan, 76, the owner of KSK Construction Group in Williamsburg, had faced up to six months behind bars under federal sentencing guidelines, but prosecutors and a probation officer agreed no prison time was warranted. 'I'm simply sorry to the New York taxpayers,' said a rueful Arkan before he was sentenced to one year of probation in Manhattan federal court. Advertisement The Turkey native pleaded guilty in January to a wire fraud charge for illegally reimbursing his employees for roughly $18,000 of donations they made toward Adams' successful 2021 campaign for mayor. 3 Construction kingpin Erden Arkan told the court that he was sorry for helping rip off taxpayers in the campaign scam. William Farrington The Adams campaign then used those funds to fraudulently hoover up public dollars under a city program that matches donations 8-to-1 with taxpayer cash, prosecutors alleged. Advertisement The feds said Adams had personally asked the wealthy magnate and a Turkish diplomat for campaign cash at an April 2021 dinner. Arkan tried to convince other members of the city's Turkish community to bundle donations to Adams at a fundraiser he held soon after the meeting at his business's headquarters, court papers said. 'Unfortunately, this is how things work in this country,' he allegedly wrote to his colleagues. Adams was charged in September 2024 with taking $123,000 in travel perk bribes and ripping off taxpayers with bogus campaign cash from Turks in exchange for help fast-tracking the opening of the Manhattan Turkish consulate building. Advertisement 3 Arkan's business has netted more than $1 billion since its founding in 2003, his lawyer said. @teachstats / Instagram But the Justice Department under President Trump took the unusual move in February of pushing for the historic corruption case against Hizzoner to be dismissed, without commenting on the strength of the prosecution. The judge overseeing both Adams and Arkan's cases, Dale Ho, has suggested that the DOJ moved to toss the charges in exchange for the mayor's help rolling out the White House's immigration agenda. Adams pleaded not guilty and has also denied allegations that there was a crooked 'quid pro quo' tied to the case dismissal. Advertisement Arkan's lawyer, Jonathan Rosen, accused the government on Friday of being 'unfair' and inconsistent in continuing to prosecute his client after Ho agreed to toss Adams' case. 3 Federal prosecutors moved to toss Adams' case earlier this year without commenting on the strength of the evidence. REUTERS 'I'm commenting on the incoherence,' Rosen said. But a visibly irked Ho shot back, 'What impact does that have on the decision before me today?' The judge added that Arkan — who said his company netted more than $1 billion in revenue since its founding in 2003 — had otherwise lived an 'exemplary' life before his arrest, before wishing him good luck in the future. 'I promise to do good. This will never happen again,' Arkan told the court. On top of the one year of probation, Arkan was ordered to pay $18,000 in restitution and a $9,500 fine. A rep for Adams' 2025 campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
