MELİH ZORLU: “Now everything is above politics. This is a problem the whole world is facing.

Our mission is to provide good education to our children and youth, improve the economic situation of our employees in the economic sphere, provide work to the able-bodied unemployed population and provide good living conditions for the unemployed disabled population.

Of course, we must take measures to protect the health of all our citizens during the Covid-19 pandemic. When fulfilling this mission, we must act delicately and special care must be given. For this, science must always go hand in hand with common sense. Now everything is above politics. This is a problem that the whole world has encountered. Regardless of whether this phenomenon is spontaneous or maliciously planned in laboratories, we must by all means preserve the health of our children. Quarantining children in the absence of an illness in the house, their separation from their usual life and living “under a glass cover”, the inability to obtain beneficial bacteria that strengthen the immune system, the increased risk of domestic violence with a long stay at home, lack of communication with friends - all this can in the future negatively affect immunity, mental health and education of children.

In the near future we will witness the consequences of departure from the economic life of a business involving close contact (canteens, cafeterias, hairdressers ...), therefore it is necessary to coordinate social life in such a way that we can cope with this state of affairs.

The economy is collapsing, everyone is worried. This concern should soon disappear. It is necessary to slightly increase the fighting spirit of our people, so to speak, we need to give the engine the gun. Restrictive measures will be taken, but our people are already used to the fact that their social life is controlled. We have a structure that can easily adapt to such situations. First of all, our people need economic support. During this period, our banks, which make profit a top priority, can fulfill public debt if they work, taking into account the feelings of the people and projection in the long run. The company Zorlu Asansör, as soon as the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic appeared, without waiting for measures to be taken at the state level, in order to protect the health of personnel and prevent the spread of the virus for a week, suspended the production process and switched to a lightened work schedule. However, our customers did not even feel it. At this time, the government raised the issue of a short-term transition to an easier work schedule with job preservation. We appreciated this requirement and chose a 50% shift system: half of the employees worked in the morning shift, the other half in the afternoon with the obligatory wearing of masks and maintaining social distance. We also ensured that the tests were carried out by employees in the immediate vicinity of whom symptoms of coronavirus disease were observed. We did all this because we understood that the economy is as important as health. We have always paid particular attention to protecting workers' health and strengthening their immunity. Even when it became known that mortality from coronavirus is only 3% and that 20% of patients with the disease are asymptomatic, we continued to take precautions. Although Covid-19's contagiousness is very high and mortality is low, if the necessary measures are not taken, hospitals expect overcrowding, intensive care units and the healthcare system will overload, and doctors will be faced with making a choice on which patient to treat. Taking all this into account, the company continued its activities in compliance with all safety measures.

Nevertheless, in the long run, such measures lead to impaired mental health, decreased immunity in healthy people, anxiety, uncertainty and worsening the economy. Even very rich countries could not cope with this. Some countries even intended to develop collective immunity to save the economy. Concern over the destruction of the health system made us take a step back. As a result of these scientific studies, it became clear that the most rational solution is a controlled social life after the pandemic danger falls below a certain limit. Meanwhile, the pandemic has helped many countries identify their weaknesses and see the positives along with the negative ones. It became clear that the country's agriculture and animal husbandry received more serious support, the importance of industry could not be underestimated, and national thought could raise industry to a new level. Turkey’s elevator construction was particularly vulnerable in terms of exporting mine elevators abroad. If we can heal our wounds with financial support, we will be able to lend a helping hand to other countries affected by the pandemic. Moreover, we ourselves will become even stronger and more successful than before the pandemic. At first glance, perhaps we had to take emergency measures due to panic. But now it’s not the time to observe the actions of other countries. Because our country and people are unique. Under the conditions in Turkey, it is necessary to ensure a transition to a controlled public life in the light of scientific developments, without endangering the economy and the health care system. In our country, there is a system that people, who especially value solidarity, are always ready to provide support. Reducing anxiety levels will trigger decisions. And it’s not even a matter of how much people believe in the unity of government, parties, ministries, employers and workers with respect to breaking the pandemic at a profit. We must go through this period at all costs in order not to go back in time and repeat strict quarantine during the second wave of the pandemic. A distinctive feature of our people is the adoption of laws and regulations, however difficult they may be. Scientific studies have shown that the economy will suffer the most from the Covid-19 pandemic. We will abide by the rules of the new normality, to warn those who do not, because we have no other homeland for life.