Turkey to keep clocks on summer time all year round

ISTANBUL

Turkey will not make any changes to its time this weekend, while European countries will set their clocks back one hour on Oct. 30. 

Turkey had previously acted in accordance with European countries regarding the practice’s beginning and ending dates, but last month the government decided not to turn back its clocks on Oct. 30. 

The decision means that Turkey will be three hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in winter as well as summer and two hours ahead of continental European countries such as Germany, France Netherland, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark in winter.

According to a cabinet decision taken upon a notice by Turkey’s Energy Ministry, daylight savings time will be used every year and winter time will no longer be implemented. The stated purpose of the change was to benefit more from daylight.  

Turkey moved to daylight savings time this year on March 27 at 3:00 a.m. local time, as clocks were wound forward one hour.      

In 2015, the winter time change had been delayed for a week in order to not disrupt the general election vote that took place on Nov. 1. Instead of Nov. 1, clocks were taken back an hour on Nov. 8 last year.