Zeitgeist Turkey | Episode 23: Ruling AKP government's pandemic opacity broke public's trust in Ankara

In this week's episode, the co-hosts evaluate Ankara's performance amid the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) continued opacity with regard to data has decreased public trust in the government amid the mass public health crisis. As Turkey awaits the delivery of 20 million doses of a vaccine made in China, the public is reluctant at best to receive the treatment.

Friday December 11 2020 01:25 pm

Editor: Azra Ceylan

In this week's episode of Zeitgeist Turkey, Duvar English Editor-in-chief Cansu Çamlıbel and pollster Can Selçuki evaluate Ankara's performance in managing the COVID-19 pandemic, as Turkey nears the end of 2020 with the fourth worst pandemic report card in the world.

Perhaps the most significant failure of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) during the pandemic has been their failure to release real COVID-19 numbers, for a while only reporting symptomatic patients, and underplaying fatalities.

While surveys show that the Health Ministry's opacity has severely damaged the public's trust in the government, Ankara is preparing to import 20 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine from China. However, the most recent data show that the public is reluctant at best to receive the treatment.