Thousands of people are protesting against the new Turkish vaccine and regulating testing

ISTANBUL, September 11 (Reuters) – More than 2,000 Turks demonstrated in Istanbul on Saturday against official mandates related to the coronavirus, including vaccines, tests and masks, in response to new government measures and a push for inoculation.

In Turkey’s largest protest, the majority without masks shouted slogans, held Turkish banners and flags and sang songs in defense of what they called individual rights, echoing anti-vaccine rallies in some other countries.

“This pandemic continues with more restrictions on our freedoms and has no end to it,” said Erdem Boz, 40, a software developer. “Masks, vaccines and PCR testing may be mandatory. We are here to express our dissatisfaction with this.”

On Monday the government began demanding vaccination tests or a negative COVID-19 test for all users of long-distance planes, buses and trains, as well as for those attending major events such as concerts or theatrical performances.

All unvaccinated school employees should take a PCR test twice a week. Masks and social distancing are mandatory in public.

64% of Turks have received two vaccines according to a national program that has administered more than 100 million blows.

However, some 23,000 new cases are emerging every day, prompting Health Minister Fahrettin Koca to warn this month of “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

On Saturday, Koca said on Twitter, “Vaccines are the ultimate solution! Rules are very necessary.”

According to Reuters witnesses, protesters who attended the government-approved rally in the Maltepe district of Istanbul were not to show evidence of vaccination or negative evidence. The police did not intervene.

“We are against all these mandates,” said Aynur Buyruk Bilen, of the so-called Plandemic Resistance Movement. “I think the vaccines aren’t complete and it’s an experimental liquid.”

Turkey’s main Twitter hashtag was, “Maltepe is everywhere, resistance is everywhere.”

Report Murad Sezer, written by Jonathan Spicer, French version Sophie Louet

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