Last month I spent three days in Ankara, Turkey. As with much of my work-related travel these days I was there to talk about beer. The International Geographical Unions’s Commission on the Dynamics of Economic Spaces was holding its annual meeting there and I was giving a talk of on the reemergence of the small-scale independent brewery in the United States. This was my first visit to Ankara. It was an interesting time to visit the Turkish capital – just ten days before my visit two suicide bombers with suspected links to ISIS had killed over one hundred and injured over four hundred people in two blasts near the city’s central railway station

Although beer accounts for approximately 63% of all alcohol consumed in Turkey the Turks are not, comparatively speaking, big beer drinkers. Per capita annual consumption of beer in Turkey in 2012 was only 12.2 liters (3.2 gallons) compared with a European Union average of 72.2 liters (19.1 gallons). Most of the beer that the Turks do consume, 99% in fact, is produced domestically. Only 1% is imported from other countries.

Two companies dominate the Turkish beer market -Anadolu Efes and Turk Tuborg. Efes’ market share stands at around 85% while Tuborg has about 13%. The remaining 2% of the market is split between five other brewing companies and imports. According to a 2010 report by Ernst & Young there are the eleven breweries in Turkey, of which five are owned by Efes, one by Tuborg, and the other five by smaller craft producers. Although Anadolu Efes is Turkish-owned SAB Miller acquired a 24% market share of the company in 2011.

Like most other European countries the most popular style of beer in Turkey is pilsner. Not surprisingly Efes Pilsen is particularly ubiquitous and I pretty much encountered it everywhere I went during my short visit. I passed through Istanbul airport twice on this trip and each time went to different airport restaurants. In both places the only beer that was available on tap was Efes Pilsen, although other beers were available in bottles. After checking in to my hotel I headed straight for the hotel’s lobby bar. On getting there I sat down and when my server appeared I asked her for a beer. “Efes” she inquired? “That would be great” I replied and a few minutes later an Efes Pilsen was duly placed in front of me. I had just come off a 21 hour plane journey that had taken me from Detroit to Paris to Istanbul to Ankara. I was tired and ready for a cold one and did not have the energy to inquire into the hotel’s beer portfolio.

While my visit to Ankara was short and free time was at a premium I was determined to sample at least one Turkish craft beer. So on my second evening there my two Turkish friends, Nuri and Mehmet, along with some others, took me to a bar where they knew we could get some. The beer in question was called Gara Guzu (pronounced Kara Kuzu and literally translated as Black Sheep). The bar had two Gara Guzu brews – a blond ale and a golden ale. Gara Guzu is brewed by a small brewery called Atak which is located in the small town of Muğla (population of approximately 61,500) located in southwestern Turkey. The Blond and the Amber Ale are the only two beers brewed by Atak. I tend not to be a person who provides a critique of beers that I drink (there are enough ‘experts’ out there sharing their opinion) and so I am not going to do that here, except to say that I enjoyed them both. According to the highly respected beer rating site Ratebeer.com the Gara Guzu Blond Ale is the best beer that is brewed in Turkey.

Turkey, of course, is an Islamic country. Ninety-nine percent of the country’s 75 million population are Muslim. In a number of Islamic countries the consumption of alcohol is forbidden (with, in some cases, exceptions made for non-Muslims and foreigners) on the basis that it is contrary to the teachings contained in the Quran. In the case of Turkey however, although Islamic, the constitution guarantees that the country is a secular state. Certainly, Turkey has many of the trappings of a secular and morally liberal, state. The bars are full of young people enjoying every conceivable type of alcohol, prostitution is legal and regulated, and as I walked through the streets of Ankara I saw street vendors selling lottery tickets.

In recent years, however, there have been more restrictions placed on the alcohol industry and those who consume the fruits of its labor. Since 2002 the country has been ruled by the Justice and Development Party (AKP). The AKP is a party that is socially conservative and, according to some of my Turkish friends, desires to promote more traditional Islamic values. AKP contends that while it is conservative it is not Islamist. In 2008, however, the AKP was one constitutional court judge vote from being closed down and its leaders banned from politics for anti-secular activity.

In May 2013 the Turkish government passed legislation that prohibited the retail sale of alcohol between 10pm and 6am and placed restrictions on alcohol advertising and promotion including how it is portrayed in media such as television and movies.  For example, shops, bars, and restaurants are not allowed to have signs in their windows advertising the fact that they sell alcohol. These new restrictive laws seem to be particularly hurting small retailers who generated considerable income from residents stopping off (after 10pm) for some beer or wine on their way home or to a party.  And it is not just the folks on the ground who have felt the impact of new legislation – beer is no longer available on Turkish Airlines’ domestic flights. Turkish beer is also among the most highly taxed in Europe, with only Finnish beer drinkers encountering a higher tax burden. Since coming to power in 2002 the AKP-dominated government has raised alcohol taxes more than three fold. Despite these new restrictions in my few days in Ankara I saw bars that were teeming with young people who seemed to be enjoying each other’s company over a glass of beer or another alcoholic drink. It appears that the party, in the meantime at least, goes on in Turkey.

At the time of writing this blog entry the AKP had just swept to victory in Turkey’s November 2015 elections, winning enough seats to form a majority government. What this means for the Turkish beer industry only time will tell. Will the government double down on recent initiatives and pass additional restrictive legislation? And while there are certainly more pressing issues facing Turkey I cannot help but think that the challenges facing the alcohol industry are perhaps a metaphor for a broader tension that exists in Turkish society between those who embrace secular liberal values and those who prefer more conservative Islamic values.

Finally, the ‘war on alcohol’ (my term not someone else’s) that is occurring in Turkey has even prompted at least one human rights lawyer to chime in and decry recent government measures. Beer as a human rights issue? Now that’s an interesting idea.