For the past few weeks, we have been forced to see tasteless and humourless cartoons concerning smoking. I am a smoker and resent all this propaganda against the non-smokers on campus. By smoking, I only harm myself. If anyone has an argument that passive smokers are also harmed, then I would remind them that there are only a few places on campus where we can smoke in peace and if have a problem with the smoke we exhale, then they should stay away from us.
Also, I do not understand why so much time is spent on this non-smoking propaganda by the university administration. As far as I know, smoking has been restricted in all closed spaces of the campus since 1997 because of "Turkish law # 4207 dated November 26, 1996". Why suddenly do we see "No Smoking, Bilkent University" stickers all over campus. And I find it ridiculous to see an image of that sticker on the Bilkent website. Maybe we should ask the Turkish government to put up this image of the official website of Turkey, "No Smoking, Republic of Turkey"? Universities in the US also do not allow smoking in closed spaces but they do not go through such lengths as Bilkent is going.
Despite knowing the health risks I smoke and will continue to do so since I get a very high level of satisfaction from it. And as a member of the Bilkent community, I demand an end to this propaganda against the smokers in Bilkent University. I am sure I am not the only one who wishes that.
Salim Ahmed (MAN/IV)
