Ban and crisis are two powerful hints that have hit internationally almost all businesses and people, not-only smokers. Daily news about new crashes are reported and the sad thing is that it’s only the beginning. So, we can only pray, hope and dream of those beautiful days when we buy whatever we want and don’t think about crisis and dramatic statistics.

Against the crisis’ background, Turkey seems to declare ban on smoking and it’s not because they don’t want to have a long and healthy life, but because of…crisis. Financial crisis has affected almost all business and implement of veto is a real luxury for Turkish businesses. Since May, in Turkey smoking has been banned inside public buildings, public forms of land, sea and air transport, including taxis and any privately owned buildings where aside from residential abodes, more that one person can enter. Restaurants and bars are going to be included on ban-list in 2009.

The owner of the Olivium mall said that in his mall ban is ignored because customers wish to smoke. “Nine out of 10 customers ask whether they can light up and not a single person objects and says we should apply the ban. How are we going to pay our rent if we observe the ban? We have been inspected but we were not fined," the proprietor said.

He cannot afford to introduce ban because due to ban business has been reduced by 90 percent. “We had 11 employees here, now we have five, it is a shame... “ The same situation is in Akmerkez, one of the most famous shopping malls in the city.

There are shopping centers, like the Capacity Shopping Center in Istanbul’s Bakırköy district, that try to implement ban, at least partially. From theoretical point of view, the two cafes on the ground floor of mall have smoking and non-smoking areas, but there are no physical barriers actually dividing them. Smoke is flying into the non-smoking section and to the rest of the mall. Bitter irony. Aytaç Özçiçek, general manager of Olivium, said they think the smoking ban has been implemented too early.“

The ban has decreased revenue. This ban should be postponed in this time of crisis." Aytaç Özçiçek affirmation has a part of rightness and maybe it’ll be better to postpone ban till better times, when crisis will flow. At the moment onset of ban seems to be a vain waste of money and there are fields that need urgent investments.