ANKARA

World Health Organization (WHO) praised Turkey's fight against tobacco on its web-site.
Turkish Health Ministry stated that WHO defined Turkey's fight as a "success story".
Progress in reducing the prevalence of tobacco use cannot be made without strong political will and governmental commitment to adopt and implement robust tobacco control policies, said WHO on its web-site.
Over the past four years, Turkish leaders received three World Health Organization awards in acknowledgement of the country's whole of government to protect its citizens from tobacco smoke in a short time, said WHO.
It noted, "Turkey has been one of 15 priority countries in the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use. WHO works with the Initiative in countries to encourage other Member States to follow Turkey's highly successful lead. WHO's MPOWER package (including measures for monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies; protecting people from tobacco smoke; offering help to quit tobacco use; warning about the dangers of tobacco; enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship; and raising taxes on tobacco products) helps reduce demand for tobacco."
Turkey is the first and only country which fully met the criteria of MPOWER.