Despite campaigns by anti-smoking groups, cigarette consumption in Turkey is rising by between a 1-1.5 percent a year, compared with four percent in China.
Anti-smoking groups say international cigarette companies in the past picked the Middle East as a key market and distributed free cigarettes to promote them. They say the ban will be the only way to prevent cigarettes' disastrous effects on society.
"The cigarette's impact on Turkey is worse than terror. Every year, 117,000 people die due to cigarettes and we lose $2.5 billion (1.3 billion pounds) every year due to diseases caused by smoking," said Semsettin Toprak from the Turkish Temperance Society.
He blamed cigarette-makers for testing their products in Turkey, saying Philip Morris was introducing higher-nicotine, shorter cigarettes in Turkey for the first time to adapt to upcoming restrictions.
"My people are used as guinea pigs. America and Europe saw the dangers and the cigarette companies have turned to developing countries like us," Toprak said.
Philip Morris International said its Marlboro Intense cigarettes, introduced in Turkey in November, comply with all applicable regulations.
"The tar and nicotine levels of Marlboro Intense cigarettes, as measured in accordance with Turkish regulations, are below the government prescribed ceilings for tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide in Turkey," company spokesman Richard James said.
He added many Philips Morris brands and Marlboro variants not sold in Turkey are available in other countries.
Many smokers are well aware of the anti-smoking campaigners' warnings and consequences of their habit for their health. But some are keen to keep smoking as long as they can.
Mustafa Ozkoc, a construction worker, said he started smoking at 13 and is still smoking three packs a day at 49.
"If the government wants to implement this ban, it has to close the cigarette factories. Even then I will make my own cigarettes and continue smoking," Ozkoc said in a tea house filled with mostly jobless or retired men.
The damaging health impact is not a concern for many.
"Everything we owned has been taken from our hands. This is the only joy I am left with," Ozkoc says, showing his cigarette. Another man sitting next to him says he will never smoke outside as the law dictates and will not pay the fine either.
"I have no money to pay fines. Will they take my soul?"
