Turkish government has no plans to revert to winter time

ANKARA

The Turkish government has no plans to move back to winter time despite widespread discontent with the amount of darkness in the morning, particularly in western Turkey, said Deputy Prime Minister and cabinet spokesperson Numan Kurtulmuş. 

Asked whether the clocks would again go back for winter this year amid rising criticism to the current implementation, he said: “We have no such plan...The clocks will not be taken one hour back.”

Turkey first adopted summer time, also known as daylight saving time, in 1940, and applied it uninterruptedly after the 1970s, following the example of Europe, until this year. Today the system is used across the 28-nation European Union.

The clocks did not, however, go back an hour for winter this year at the end of October, putting Turkey three hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), ostensibly in a bid to make energy savings of up to 1 billion Turkish Liras. 

The change in the decades-long practice triggered strong criticism, as the sun does not rise until almost 8:30 a.m. in western provinces like Istanbul, while many businesses need to work extra hours so as to do business with Western partners. 

Moreover, Turkey’s electricity consumption surged sharply in November due to the country’s move to ditch the winter time system, despite a slight slowdown in the economy and moderate weather conditions, a sector association said Dec. 21.