If you dey one crowded alley for Istanbul or near one beach resort for Antalya, chance be say you go see Tekel shop. These roadside shops wey dem dey paint blue na remnant of the State Tobacco Monopoly (Tekel). Na there people dey buy cigarette.

Tekel start for mid-1920s when the young Turkish state take control of the profitable tobacco trade from foreign companies wey don dominate the market for the last years of the Ottoman Empire.

Türkiye don dey produce tobacco before that. Even the camel wey become the symbol for the Camel brand get Turkish roots. RJR, the big American company wey make Camels, dey use Turkish tobacco blend for their cigarettes. So the people for their marketing department decide put camel as logo — even though Türkiye no be place wey camel plenty like dat.

E be one important moment for Turkish cigarette industry.

But around the same time for Tazlar, one small village for Sinanpasa district inside Türkiye’s western Afyonkarahisar province, another kind change dey happen.

Under the lead of one village elder, Ahmet Aga, the people for village take oath say dem no go smoke and dem set example for the next generations.

That decision turn Tazlar permanently into one smoke-free place nearly one century before modern public health laws exist.

Near one hundred years don pass now, and the village wey get about 2,000 people still get reputation as place wey you almost no go see person wey dey smoke.

Tazlar story dey more relevant now because Turkish government dey push strong to reduce smoking. Ankara dey reason law wey fit ban people wey born after January 2015 from smoking for life.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dey known say he strong against smoking. E even tell Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni make she stop, and she stop earlier this year.

Plenty studies show Turkish people dey among di top consumers of cigarettes. But for Tazlar, that no be problem.

How e start

History almost forget Ahmet Aga, and Tazlar people fit only remember wetin dem parents tell dem. But as the story dey, Aga want protect both the people health and the small money wey dem get. For 1928, when the villagers take collective oath against tobacco, Aga use the moment because only small number of people for village dey smoke, and he persuade dem make dem quit.

"We grow up without people wey dey smoke around us," na so 66-year-old Mehmet Aydogmus talk. He be village preacher and accountant.

That difference na key to understand how Tazlar take manage am.

Instead of just depending on person-to-person decisions, the village develop collective culture wey make smoking no normal thing.

Aydogmus talk say the idea no be rule wey people impose for children from above. E be something wey dem learn by watching their parents, grandparents and neighbours.

"When I be pikin, for village if person dey smoke, na something we no dey used to," Aydogmus remember.

Tazlar na village wey houses dey red bricks, surrounded by farms of yellow tomato and sugar beet. People for village dey follow one daily routine. Dem dey wake early and dem go sleep after sun don set. For here, everybody sabi each other.

The village people opposition to smoking base partly on health worries, but Aydogmus say the tradition no fit explain by health alone.

"Our elders dey always tell us about the damage wey smoking dey cause to human health," he talk. "But dem no go stop just say e bad for body."

Dem dey also talk about how bad habits fit affect families, communities and person willpower.

"We learn am gradually," he talk. "Even as pikin we no too understand wetin e mean, but from the way our elders behave we sabi say na important matter for us."

The village approach join family responsibility, religious values and communal solidarity, Aydogmus say.

Families dey take care of their children. Older people dey warn younger ones. Neighbours sabi each other. And behaviour no be only individual matter; na something wey fit affect the whole family and community.

If pikin start get habit wey family see as harmful, relatives and neighbours no dey just look.

"If young person do mistake for somewhere, people no go talk, 'E no concern me,'" Aydogmus talk. "For village people sabi each other. Everybody sabi who be whose pikin or whose grandpikin."

But how you go protect culture if the young ones no stay to follow your foot steps?

Dispersing like smoke

Murat Karasogut, 29, wey grow for Tazlar, dey always feel cultural shock when he travel go other parts of the country.

"When we see person dey smoke outside, sometimes we go think, 'We no get this thing for our village.'"

For Tazlar, he talk, no smoking become the normal expectation. Young people no need make dem tell dem again and again to refuse smoking because cigarette don already outside the village daily culture.

"Not smoking na custom for our village, so young people dey pick am easily," he talk.

He believe say that difference still matter even as young people dey meet cigarettes more often when dem go other places.

But plenty young people from Tazlar don dey move go cities, and that one dey raise worry say the strong opposition to smoking fit begin fade with time.

More than two-thirds of the village young people now dey live for cities like Istanbul and Bursa, attracted by better education and job chances.

For both Aydogmus and Karasogut, the future of Tazlar tradition depend on whether the younger generations go still carry am go front.

Karasogut believe say the young people get special responsibility.

"We no want remain for past," Aydogmus talk. "But we no want lose our past either."