Dr Recep Akdag, Minister of Health, Republic of Turkey
Dr Akdag includes strong public support and the full backing of the Prime Minister of Turkey, Mr Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as significant contributing factors to their public smoking ban, which is to be fully implemented in July 2009.   He discusses smoking among his fellow parliamentary deputies and how this impacted on the legislation process, pointing out that the fight is not against smokers, but against public smoking.

Dr Cevdet Erdol, Chair, Parliamentary Commission on Health, Republic of Turkey
Dr Erdol talks of smoking as “...a communicable disease that is transmitted through visual means... When a child sees someone smoking on the screen it is an invitation.”  As a former cardiologist, he likens his approach to smoking as a fire-fighter who “...rushes to put that fire out.”  When he arrived in Ankara in 2002 he "...immediately started thinking about righting this wrong and start fighting against tobacco.”