Summertime to end 2 weeks later in Turkey

ANKARA

As the most of the north hemisphere sets clocks back an hour Sunday to mark the end of summer time, Turkey will wait until Nov. 8 due to the general election in a week’s time.

In a statement, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority said the Cabinet decided the daylight saving time schedule would end two weeks later than usual.

The decision led to some confusion as many electrical devices, including smart phones, automatically reset. On Twitter, the phrase “What time is it now?” began trending across Turkey.

Seasonal time changes are usually scheduled for a weekend to lessen disruption to the weekday schedule.

Daylight saving time was first used in Germany, Ireland and Britain during World War I to conserve coal. Turkey adopted daylight saving to keep its clocks synchronized with the rest of Europe and reduce demand for electricity.