Hookah hoo-ha,
CAFE owners held a “hookah protest” and played backgammon outside the Health Ministry on Wednesday over an ongoing pandemic ban for such activities at their businesses.
They set up a “mini cafe” in front the ministry building to voice their demands.
Gökhan Aslan, speaking on behalf of the Cafe Businesses Association, called on the government to review the bans.
“Due to constant closures and bans for our sector over the last 14 months because of the increase in [Covid-19] cases, we no longer have the strength to keep going,” Mr Aslan said.
“Our businesses have spent a lot of money to create clean concept spaces and provide the best service for the public. . . Our sector’s unforeseen expenses are high. We can no longer pay for expenses such as electricity, rent and staff while we are closed.”
Mr Aslan stated that after last year’s lockdown cafe owners had taken out bank loans to cover their costs and pay their rent.
“Due to the second lockdown we cannot afford to take out a second loan to pay our accumulated expenses and banks will no longer allow us to do this,” he said.
Mr Aslan explained that tables are cleaned with alcohol-based disinfectants before and after they are used by customers, and that all plates and cutlery are washed and steamed in “high pressure” dishwashers.
He continued: “Customers have stopped coming since okey [a tile-based game], backgammon and hookah have been banned.
“Tables, okey tiles and backgammon sets are disinfected after each use. We were open in 2020 when there were fewer cases, now we are closed and there are more cases. We are not responsible for the increase in cases but yet we see that our sector is paying the price of the pandemic.”
Mr Aslan called on government officials to “find a remedy for their sector as soon as possible”, otherwise they will be “forced to close” their businesses.