Turkish businesses welcome easing of Covid-19 restrictions

Ankara, March 4 : In Turkey’s capital city Ankara, there is a glimmer of hope among businesses following the partial easing of months-long coronavirus restrictions.
“It has been very rough in the past months, we lost a lot of customers and barely tried to survive with takeaways,” Seref Sanli, manager of a small restaurant, told Xinhua.
The business, which offers traditional Turkish dishes, is located in the residential and commercial Kucukesat district, home to many restaurants, cafes and bars.
Like plenty of others, it had been forced to close for over three months because of stricter health measures and curfews imposed following a new surge of Covid-19 infections in early December last year.
“Takeaways represent only a fraction of our overall business, so we are happy to welcome again customers inside,” Sanli said, adding that they are trying to “stay positive” with a mass vaccination program launched in mid-January.
Restaurants and cafes suffered serious financial losses in the past months and some have closed down. While bars and nightclubs will be the last places to be reopened in June, according to press reports.