Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

Cops in Turkey have been publicising the fight against crime and at the same time persuading people to stay home by writing “Stay Home” in Turkish using seized drugs.

Turkey has reportedly seen 574 deaths with over 27,000 people infected according to official statistics published by the Johns Hopkins University, but many experts believe the real numbers are far higher.

Yet despite being number nine on the most infected countries after the United Kingdom, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is refusing to implement a full lockdown, saying that the economy needs to continue to operate.

This is despite powerful figures such as the mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu saying that time was running out for the lockdown to still have a chance of working.

But while falling short of a full lockdown, the government has gone as far as advising people to stay home where possible, and this message was now passed on by police by writing “evde kal” which means stay home using seized narcotics. in a separate photo they also wrote

The strategy was first applied by cops in in Istanbul’s Beyoglu who showed money seized from the dealers together with marijuana packages in the drugs bust and mobile phones.

It was then followed a week later by police in the eastern province of Kars use the same strategy with the message written in seized drugs, together with a picture of one of the police dogs used in the operation

The picture was widely shared on social media and Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu also tweeted it as well.

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