Pushing Back, and Raising a Glass, in Turkey

And even in Isparta, a religiously conservative region that is a wellspring of support for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a small group of residents, drinks in hand, gathered outside the office of the local governor who is an ally of the embattled prime minister and chanted, “Cheers, Tayyip!”

Drinking is far from the only issue held up in the intense antigovernment protests that have convulsed Turkey for more than a week. But it has become closely intertwined with the broader complaints of demonstrators fighting what they see as the rising authoritarianism of the Turkish government.

It also cuts to the heart of Turkish identity, as both sides have cast it as a clash of Islamic and secular values. While protesters have held up new limits on drinking as an affront to the secular values of modern Turkey, Mr. Erdogan has said that “religion demands” curbs on drinking. He has gone so far as to implicitly refer to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of Turkey and a notoriously heavy drinker, as a “drunkard,” and in one of a series of speeches he delivered Sunday to cheering supporters, accused protesters of taking beer into mosques.

There are some signs, however, that the push to further limit alcohol use may be weakening. A local court here quietly issued an injunction overturning a local law that restricted the sale and consumption of alcohol. A court in another small community outside Ankara, Turkey’s capital, issued a similar ruling.

Most notably, President Abdullah Gul has yet to sign the national legislation, and he raised the possibility of a veto by saying he would take public opinion into account in deciding.

Though alcohol has, for the moment, become a national issue, there is little evidence that it is a majority one: nondrinkers are widely believed to greatly outnumber drinkers here.

In Isparta, once home to an important Muslim spiritual leader and still noted for roses widely used in lotions and perfumes, local residents are more likely to drink a sweet beverage made from rose syrup, served ice cold, than they are to raise a glass of raki, Turkey’s famous anise-flavored liquor. Even before the proposed nationwide law, this community cracked down on drinking with local ordinances.

But Isparta is a college town, and some residents do drink. And in recent days, Isparta has joined the roll call of cities where the debate has found new intensity.

“It isn’t really about religion,” said Yusuf Gunaydin, the mayor, who like many residents is a teetotaler. “For us it’s more about the drunk people, the disagreements, the violence against women.”

But, he added, “of course, in Islam it is haram to drink alcohol.”

The mayor’s spokesman, Hasan Parlakyildiz, another nondrinker, said, “Isparta has always been conservative. There isn’t a drinking culture here at all. What we don’t want is any new bars to open.”

Turan Eroglu, the manager of a bar called Barcelona, one of the few drinking holes left in the center of Isparta, referred to a brutal Ottoman sultan who reigned in the 17th century in describing plans by Mr. Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party, known by the initials A.K.P., to restrict alcohol.

“We’re going back to the time of Murad IV when alcohol was banned,” he said. “The A.K.P. is taking us back. This only happens in Iran. Now it happens in Turkey.”

At another bar nearby, the Flora Club and Bar, Merve Vural, a 20-year-old college student, said: “We’re students and we’re always going to find ways to get alcohol. They are imposing their religion on us. They are doing it very slowly.”

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