Legal Drinking Age in Turkey

What is minimum legal drinking age in Turkey? Minimum legal drinking age in Turkey is 18. Alcoholic beverages cannot be sold or served to people who are not over the age of 18 in any purpose. If there is any doubt about the age of the customer, the seller can legally request to see the identity card of the costumer to check the age. What about legal minimum smoking age in Turkey? It is the same, minimum legal smoking age in Turkey is 18. In a shop, it is mandatory for the owner to put signs and labels showing that tobacco products and alcoholic beverages cannot be sold to persons who are under 18. Persons aged under 18 can not be employed in marketing and sales of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products.

In recent years Turkey has made various applications to keep children and youth away from the influence of drinking alcoholic beverages since drinking age has said to be fallen to 10. In 2011, the drinking and buying age of alcoholic beverages was increased to 24. After a while this law was stopped by the council, the drinking and buying age of alcoholic beverages were made 18 again. However, the following -drinking- laws are applied to protect young people from the harm of alcoholic beverages.

• Drinking of alcoholic beverages cannot be promoted and advertised for consumers in any way. So you can not see commercials of alcoholic beverages in Turkey.
• Campaigns, promotions and activities that encourage the use and sale of alcoholic products cannot be made.
• Alcoholic beverages cannot be sold by automatic vending machines in Turkey. That's why there is no beer vending machines in Turkey.
• Alcoholic beverages cannot be sold in markets from 22:00 to 06:00.
• Alcoholic beverages can be drunk 24h only in places where the permission is granted, however alcoholic beverages cannot be sold in these places to be drunk outside the premises.
• Alcoholic beverages cannot be sold at dormitories, health service places, sports competitions, stadiums and indoor sports halls, all kinds of education and training institutions and coffee houses.

To get more information, click our article Is it safe to drink alcoholic beverages in Turkey?