{"id":70101,"date":"2013-04-27T18:27:03","date_gmt":"2013-04-27T15:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=70101"},"modified":"2014-01-08T11:34:35","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T09:34:35","slug":"prime-minister-causes-stir-over-turkeys-top-tipple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2013\/04\/27\/prime-minister-causes-stir-over-turkeys-top-tipple\/","title":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Causes Stir Over Turkey\u2019s Top Tipple"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is it Lion\u2019s Milk or Cow\u2019s Milk? That\u2019s the question many Turks are asking after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made another foray into the nation\u2019s drinking habits late on Friday.<\/span><\/h2>\n

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Is it Lion\u2019s Milk or Cow\u2019s Milk?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the question many Turks are asking after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made another foray into the nation\u2019s drinking habits late on Friday.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the global alcohol policy symposium in Istanbul, the Prime Minister, a devout Muslim known for a distaste of alcohol, said Turkey\u2019s national drink was Ayran, a salty yoghurt drink made from Cow\u2019s Milk.<\/p>\n

That sparked the ire of many secular Turks who have long held that the nation\u2019s top tipple is Raki, an alcoholic drink known as lion\u2019s milk and favorite of modern Turkey\u2019s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Erdogan did not specifically mention Raki, but lamented how beer and other alcoholic drinks had been encouraged during the early days of the Republic when Ataturk\u2019s administration reoriented Turkey towards the west after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a single party government, alcohol promotion was turned into such an exaggerated propaganda that billboards were put up in the restaurants. It was said that alcohol is useful,\u201d Mr. Erdogan was quoted as saying by state-run news agency Anadolu. \u201cMoreover in the first years of Republic alcoholic drink beer was unfortunately introduced as a national drink in some books. However our national drink is ayran\u2026Alcohol offers no benefits to a society,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The power of Mr. Erdogan, who has won three consecutive elections and is known to be eyeing a run for Turkey\u2019s president, was illustrated by the market reaction to the speech. Shares in PinarSut Mamulleri, Turkey\u2019s largest listed dairy producer, immediately jumped 3% higher on the comments. Shares in Turkey\u2019s largest beer manufacturer Anadolu Efes were unmoved on the news but were 2% higher than the opening price.<\/p>\n

Data from Turkey\u2019s statistics agency suggests that Ayran has some distance to travel before taking the top prize. 2012 numbers shows that consuption of Ayran, a drink wildly popular in Turkish speaking countries but often maligned by foreigners for its salty taste, was 442,000 tonnes in 2012. Consumption of Beer in the Turkish market was 998,000 tonnes according to data from Turkey\u2019s Alcohol Regulator.<\/p>\n

News of the speech immediately generated a vigorous debate among Turks on social media, underscoring how the issue of alcohol remains emblematic of the polarization betweenTurkey\u2019s observant Muslims and secular masses.<\/p>\n

Mr. Erdogan\u2019s ruling Justice and Development Party has long promised an Islam-infused democracy and has sought to rehabilitate a conservative Ottoman legacy long-discredited for decades during an iron-fisted secular rule. Many secular-minded Turks think the ruling party is systematically undermining the founding principles of theTurkishRepublicin order to make the country more religious.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s intervention over alcohol is reminiscent over a thorny debate in February over news Turkish Airlines, one of the world\u2019s fastest-growing carriers would change attendant\u2019s uniforms and ban alcohol on an undetermined number of flights. That news brought allegations from commentators that the company was dramatically reorienting its culture as a result of political pressure fromTurkey\u2019s islamist-rooted ruling Justice and Development Party. Turkish Airlines sought to quell criticism by stressing that it would only ban alcohol on domestic flights and on eight overseas routes to Islamic countries where the local carriers operated the same \u2018dry\u2019 policy.<\/p>\n

For many Turks, debates which speak to the country\u2019s divisions are flaring then fizzling, with increasing regularity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it Lion\u2019s Milk or Cow\u2019s Milk? That\u2019s the question many Turks are asking after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made another foray into the nation\u2019s drinking habits late on Friday. Is it Lion\u2019s Milk or Cow\u2019s Milk? That\u2019s the question many Turks are asking after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made another foray into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":70102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2939],"tags":[9091,9092,8226],"class_list":["post-70101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultureart","tag-ayran","tag-lions-milk","tag-raki"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}