ISTANBUL – Police across Turkey are conducting routine ID checks on the streets, stopping anyone who looks under 20 or over 65 as they enforce a coronavirus curfew for the young and the elderly.
Yet factory workers are still going to their jobs, people freely ride buses and many offices remain open. Turkey has charted its own course to navigate the pandemic with more relaxed restrictions than its neighbors in Europe and the Middle East, relying on a strategy of limiting access and mobility nationwide that stops short of a mandatory lockdown.
Citing economic concerns, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has so far resisted calls for more drastic measures. But with the number of infections rising sharply — and likely still weeks away from their