The true state of the pandemic in Turkey

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News Commentary, News

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2020

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

Turkey has had record numbers of new coronavirus infections recently with around 30,000 positive cases a day. That number has now dropped slightly, and the Health Ministry says restrictions have begun to bear fruit. But how did it get to this, in a country which was initially regarded as doing well in the pandemic? Now the government has been accused of covering up the spread of the virus, and putting lives at risk, as Orla Guerin reports from Istanbul. In Sudan’s western region of Darfur, the long-running armed conflict has cost 300,000 lives, and forced two and a half million people to flee their homes. After a peace deal in August, the international peacekeeping force is preparing to pull out this month. Hopes now rest on the new part-civilian, part-military government, which came to power after 30 years of dictatorial rule. But as Mike Thomson found, the dual structure of the new administration can pose challenges on the ground. People in Bethlehem are preparing for an austere Christmas without the income from foreign pilgrims and tourists – but you can still find stories of hope there. Especially at the Milk Grotto – near the Nativity Church – where the Virgin Mary is said to have nursed baby Jesus. It’s long been claimed that women who have difficulties conceiving are blessed with children after praying at the grotto, or using bits of soft chalk, or “milk powder”, from its walls, as Yolande Knell reports. New York City was hit worse than many places during the first wave of the pandemic, and Nick Bryant and his wife both caught the virus. So his adopted home is the perfect perch from which to observe, and now reflect on, the extraordinary year that was 2020.

Presenter: Kate Adie Producer: Arlene Gregorius

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:05.6	Good morning.
0:06.6	Today to Sudan, where peace and goodwill are in somewhat short supply and in the We're in a little corner of Bethlehem in a side street behind the Church of the Nativity.
0:27.0	It's a chapel called the Milk Grotto, where Mary is said to have nursed the baby Jesus, a place to offer hope to women around the world.
0:36.4	And all of us have reason to reflect on the past year, the pandemic year.
0:42.4	In New York, our correspondent has some very personal reasons for sharing his thoughts
0:48.0	first to Turkey which like several nations is going to have a rather quiet new year. It's in nationwide
0:55.6	lockdown from New Year's Eve to the 4th of January. The countries had record numbers of
1:01.0	new infections with around 30,000 confirmed positive cases a day,
1:06.2	though restrictions have begun to take effect.
1:09.4	But like several other countries, it was regarded as a relative success during the first wave.
1:15.1	So what's happened?
1:16.7	Allagarin says the government has been accused of a cover-up.
1:21.5	Under the cold winter sun, the burials were brief and lonely.
1:25.6	Kilios Cemetery sits on a hillside on the outskirts of Istanbul. Here among the
1:32.0	pine trees we saw two victims of COVID-19 laid to rest side by side.
1:38.0	There were few mourners for either one. The virus has laid waste to tradition as well as lives.
1:45.0	One of those buried was an elderly man called Kamal.
1:49.0	His son-in-law, Buniamin, told me Kamal was one of 15 family members to catch COVID after visiting relatives in another
1:57.0	city. We have to wear our masks, keep our distance and avoid crowds, he said. We wouldn't have any of these problems if people had followed
2:07.3	the government's advice to the letter. But how much did the government tell the people and did the numbers add up?
2:15.0	During the first wave of COVID, Turkey issued daily figures for those who tested positive for the virus.
	...

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