Turkey clocks defy time-change delay

Election billboards in Turkish streets, as general elections will be held on Nov. 1, 2015. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel )

For those in Europe and the US, Saturday night marked the end of the daylight saving time, but the Turkish government delayed the time change by two weeks this year, in light of the upcoming parliamentary elections on 1 November.

Along with countries in the Eastern European Time (EET) zone such as Bulgaria, Lithuania and Ukraine, and countries elsewhere, Turkey had been expected to add an hour to Sunday at the end of daylight saving time.

But when millions of Turks woke up to a confusing morning on Sunday (24 October) they found out their smartphones, tablets, and computers had automatically updated in keeping with other countries in the Eastern European Time zone, even though Turkey delayed setting clocks back an hour for the next two weeks, as reported by International Business Times.

Energy Minister Ali Riza Alaboyun said that Turkish capital Ankara wanted the nights to stay lighter in the evening in order to monitor public safety during the campaign and election period. The delay will ensure that there will be daylight during the opening hours of the vote, thus making it easier and safer for the Turks to cast their votes in the early hours of the day.

In a statement, the Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK) warned citizens to manually adjust the time settings on their smartphones and other electronic devices in order to avoid confusion.

The Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah reported that the time change delay meant that Muslim prayer times on printed calendars would be rendered inaccurate, according to IBT.

Turkish citizens took to Twitter protesting this confusion with hashtag #saatkac  or “what’s the time now?”, as it becomes a trending topic across the internet.

Some people blamed it on Turkey’s president Erdogan, as one user said, “For the next two weeks #Turkey is on EEST… Erdogan Engineered Standard Time.” While another user said, “Turkey united for the first time around one question today: what time is it?”

This is the third time in the last five years that the clocks have been delayed in Turkey according to the Independent. The start of daylight savings was put off due to local elections in 2014, and was delayed in 2011 due to a nationwide exam.