Interior Minister explains why curfew decision was announced short before it started

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu made new statements about the curfew decision, which made citizens flock into the streets for shopping and caused controversy around the time of the announcement. Speaking to reporters, Minister Soylu replied to the question “why it had been announced only 2 hours before entry into effect”, as follows:

“Do you remember what time some other countries announced their decisions to impose curfew? Based on that experience, would it have been better if we had made the announcement at an earlier hour causing people to flock to the markets?

Remember the looting witnessed in those countries, people hoarding all kinds of supplies from toilet paper to food in all markets. Would such an experience be better or much worse?

Regarding the mobility witnessed after the announcement of the curfew, Minister Soylu said, “We can monitor it. We observed a movement of 250 thousand people during the incident and in fact, it stopped in a short time.

The Minister explained that decisions were taken after  discussions by the Science Board and added following; “However, taking into account the warming of the weather, a step has been taken to ensure that people stay at their homes this weekend, at least”.