Turkey to stay on summer time all year round

Turkey will stop turning back its clocks this winter, staying on summer time all year round to make better use of daylight.

The clocks in Turkey went forward one hour on 27 March for summer, in line with the rest of Europe.

But this setting will now remain in place throughout the year across the country, according to a decree adopted at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

The clocks were to have gone back one hour on 30 October when Turkish summertime officially ends.

But after the decree, published on Thursday, there will be no winter adjustment.

The decree, which comes into force immediately, said the decision was aimed at “making more use of daylight” during the winter.

The decision means Turkey will be three hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in winter as well as summer and two hours ahead of continental Europe in winter.

“I abolished the winter-summer time difference,” the prime minister, Binali Yıldırım, said in a speech to provincial governors.

“There will be no confusion now. The hours will be the same in winter and summer. You will change, not the hours.”