‘Bad booze came from the north, Turkey says

TURKISH Cypriot alcoholic drinks producers yesterday slammed Turkey’s agricultural ministry after it blamed them for the deaths of three Russian tour guides in a southern Turkish seaside resort.

According to a statement by the Turkish agricultural ministry in Ankara, the three Russian tour guides were among a group of 21 that were hospitalised after drinking counterfeit alcohol served aboard a cruise ship that sailed out of the southern Turkish resort of Bodrum on May 26. Two of the tour guides died of what appeared to be methanol poisoning in Turkey, while a third died after returning to Russia. The ministry said it believed the drinks served aboard the cruise liner were among 12,000 bottles that had been imported from the north.

But Turkish Cypriot alcohol producers were adamant yesterday that the drinks could not have originated from the handful of producers in the north.

“None of the companies here actually produce the alcohol used in drinks manufacturing,” Atilla Suren, head of Selim and Son drinks producers in Famagusta said.

“We import the alcohol, and we manufacture drinks using that,” Suren said. “In short, it would be absolutely impossible for drinks that contained methanol to be exported from here. And even if they were, they’d never get past customs in Turkey.” Reports in Turkey named a Turkish Cypriot company called Jasmin as being the source,

According to a report by the Turkish Anatolian New Agency yesterday, the drinks were sold under the names Eagle Blow vodka and gin, Raki 7 raki (ouzo) and Mr. Burdon whisky, Anatolia said. Turkish officials were also trying to trace bottles of Blu-Energizer and Dragon energy drinks that were served on the ship along with the

counterfeit alcohol.

Suren said producers had reached the conclusion that the Turkish ministry’s statement was nothing more than an attempt to blacken the name of Turkish Cypriot drink producers.

“Turkey is full of fake products, so why would they assume the drinks come from here?

“They don’t even know for sure if they [the three Russian] died from ingesting bad alcohol yet, let alone where it came from,” he added

Last night, Anatolia reported that bottles of the lethal drinks were still being studies by the state coroner.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.