Intoxication with surrogate alcohol is not rare in Turkey

22 people died from surrogate spirits poisoning in Turkey in 2005. In 2009 11 people, including 3 German students, died from vodka with methanol.

In March 2009 three Germans from Luebek became victims of surrogate alcohol. These 18-22 years old young men came for vacation at the Anatolia Beach Hotel in Kemer with a group of professional college students. Students bought a bottle of raki at the hotel. The drink turned out to be made from methanol. Two youngsters passed away right on the spot, third one managed to get back to Germany, where he died from coarse brain lesion. Four other students luckily escaped lethal ending.

At that time the case reached the court. A hotel staff member, who sold poisoned vodka to the students and a businessman who was supplying alcohol to the hotel were accused. That wasn’t the first time when that businessman was found dealing with alcohol of poor quality.

Total of 11 people died from alcohol poisoning in Turkey in 2009, 2005 took more than 20 people. These numbers are not high at all when compared to Russia. In our country in mid 2000s 40 thousand people a year were dying from counterfeit vodka.