Türkiye may be about to tighten its tobacco laws, and the numbers behind the push are striking. A new round of public opinion surveys by the Turkish Green Crescent (Yeşilay), the country's main anti-addiction organisation, found overwhelming public support for stricter controls on cigarettes and vapes — including a generational sales ban that would make tobacco illegal to buy for anyone born in 2015 or later.
The research combined a digital survey of 1,461 people with a face-to-face field survey of 5,481 respondents spanning all seven of Türkiye's regions. In the digital poll, 91.4% backed new regulations protecting children and young people from tobacco and nicotine addiction. Support for the "Tobacco-Free Generation" idea — the born-after-2015 sales ban — came in at 89.3% online and 83.2% in the field survey, numbers that would make lawmakers in most countries sit up.
Other proposals scored similarly well. Around 84.5% of respondents want tobacco products hidden from view at shops and kiosks, 89.6% favour tighter rules on tobacco sold via digital platforms, and 91.6% support reducing smoking and its visibility in public spaces. Respondents also see newer products as a health risk: 96.3% consider e-cigarettes harmful, 92.9% say the same of disposable vapes, and 91.5% feel that way about heated tobacco.
Yeşilay president Professor Mehmet Dinç framed the proposals as regulation rather than prohibition, saying the priority is shielding children and young people, and confirmed the organisation fully backs the Health Ministry's work and hopes the legislation clears Parliament.
Why does this matter to travellers? Türkiye already bans smoking in enclosed public spaces — restaurants, bars, cafés, taxis and public transport included — and enforcement in Istanbul and the resort coast is generally solid. If the new rules pass, expect further changes on the ground: cigarettes and vapes increasingly hidden behind counters, possible limits on where vaping is allowed, and stricter checks on who can buy nicotine products. Anyone travelling with vapes or disposable e-cigarettes should also be aware that local attitudes towards them are hardening, and imports or sales rules can change quickly. The safest approach is to treat Turkish smoking law as at least as strict as, and often stricter than, what you'd find in much of Europe.
For non-smokers, the direction of travel is good news: outdoor terraces and covered areas that were once grey zones are likely to come under closer scrutiny, and public spaces could get visibly clearer of tobacco marketing. Café culture in Istanbul or a night out in Antalya won't change overnight, but the atmosphere around lighting up is shifting, and the law looks set to follow.
The proposed changes still need to pass through Parliament, so nothing is final yet. But with polling support this strong, travellers planning a trip to Türkiye over the coming year should expect a steadily stricter tobacco environment — and pack accordingly.