By Timothy S. Donahue
Top Takeaways:
Endgame target: A Health Ministry draft would prohibit tobacco sales nationwide beginning Jan. 1, 2040.
Nicotine swept in: The proposal would extend the tobacco-product definition to e-cigarettes, heated tobacco and products containing organic or synthetic nicotine.
Restrictions come first: Outdoor smoking bans, electronic sales tracking, age verification and substantially higher penalties would arrive well before 2040.
Türkiye is considering a tobacco endgame with a set end date.
A sweeping proposal under preparation by Türkiye’s Health Ministry would progressively tighten the country’s tobacco controls and prohibit tobacco sales nationwide beginning Jan. 1, 2040.
The proposal remains a draft and has not been enacted. Turkish media reported this week that work on the package is ongoing, with the government aiming to advance the legislation before budget deliberations. An earlier version of the 2040 plan was reported in April.
If adopted in its currently reported form, the legislation would go well beyond cigarettes. Electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products, hookahs, and devices containing organic or synthetic nicotine would fall under the expanded tobacco-product definition.
That provision could make the proposal particularly significant for the broader nicotine industry. Türkiye already prohibits the commercial importation of e-cigarettes and similar devices, including products regardless of whether they contain nicotine. Heated tobacco consumables and vaping products brought into the country by adult travelers are permitted only within specified limits.
The new proposal would set a much broader endpoint: after Jan. 1, 2040, tobacco products could no longer be legally sold or supplied for consumption. Before then, the government would steadily narrow the products’ permitted uses and how they could be sold.
Smoking would be prohibited in outdoor sections of restaurants and cafes as well as beaches, sports facilities and other public spaces. More recent reporting on the draft also describes restrictions around schools, hospitals, public buildings and places of worship. Restaurants and cafes could maintain small physically separated smoking sections, but food and beverage service would not be permitted inside them.
Beach smoking would similarly be confined to designated areas, with smoking cabins separated by at least 200 meters under the reported proposal.
Türkiye already has extensive smoke-free rules. Amendments to Law No. 4207 prohibited smoking in enclosed public spaces beginning in 2008 and expanded the prohibition to restaurants, cafes and similar hospitality businesses in 2009.
The proposed legislation would also change how tobacco is sold.
Products would be kept out of sight in closed cabinets, while transactions would move through an electronic system incorporating age verification and sales tracking. The system is intended both to prevent underage purchases and improve authorities’ ability to monitor distribution and illicit trade.
Selling covered products to minors could carry a prison sentence of six months to one year. Penalties elsewhere would rise sharply. Someone smoking in a prohibited area could face an immediate TRY5,000 ($102) administrative fine. Businesses could face escalating penalties and, for repeated violations, temporary closure or loss of their operating licenses.
The consequences become substantially more severe once the proposed 2040 prohibition takes effect.
Individuals purchasing or possessing tobacco products could face administrative fines of TRY50,000 to TRY250,000. Importing, manufacturing, transporting or selling covered products after the deadline could bring judicial fines ranging from TRY1 million to TRY5 million, with amounts adjusted over time for inflation.
The proposal comes as Türkiye continues debating how to handle newer nicotine products that already circulate despite existing restrictions.
That tension surfaced in Parliament earlier this year. Istanbul lawmaker Burak Akburak said e-cigarettes were widely available illegally and questioned why the government continued leaving a large market to smugglers rather than regulating and taxing it.
Other lawmakers have pushed in precisely the opposite direction. Bursa lawmaker Kayıhan Pala told Parliament in February that e-cigarettes and heated tobacco should remain subject to strong controls and criticized efforts to legalize the products.
The 2040 proposal, at least as currently reported, points toward the more restrictive path.
The date remains a policy objective contained in draft legislation, not a settled prohibition. The precise provisions could change before the measure reaches Parliament, and Parliament would still have to approve the legislation before Türkiye’s proposed tobacco endgame becomes law.
