The Longest Night of the Year
Today, the sun rose at 8:26 AM in Istanbul, an unusually late hour that has sparked debates and comparisons with other European capitals. Some infographics highlight Istanbul’s sunrise times alongside northern cities like Stockholm and Copenhagen, where shorter days are natural. However, these comparisons often omit cities such as Athens, Rome, and Lisbon at Istanbul’s latitude. Unlike the northern capitals, where nature dictates the brevity of daylight, Istanbul’s case is a matter of policy.
Last week, President-elect Donald Trump tweeted, “I’ll do everything I can to abolish daylight saving time!” Meanwhile, Türkiye remains on permanent daylight-saving time. Had Türkiye reverted to standard time, like Finland, Greece, or Egypt — or even Lebanon, Israel, and Northern Cyprus — the sun would have risen in Istanbul today at 7:26 AM.
As I noted last month, “Adjusting time for energy savings is a relic of the past.” This issue goes beyond waking in darkness or children heading to school at dawn. It’s about Türkiye’s disconnection from global rhythms. With most foreign investment originating in Europe, the growing time difference is a strategic disadvantage. Research by Dany Bahar at Harvard University examined 3,000 multinational companies across 100 countries and 100,000 workplaces. His findings reveal that more minor time differences between a company’s headquarters and branches lead to delegating more knowledge-intensive tasks. Conversely, more significant time gaps result in lower-value activities being assigned. This misalignment affects daily routines and future job prospects. Karl Polanyi aptly observed, “We know more than we can tell.” Much corporate knowledge is conveyed through direct communication rather than written documents, making time alignment crucial.
The complexity of this issue should not be underestimated. In November 2021, I wrote, “The clock adjustment dilemma boils down to whether children in the West should see sunlight on their way to school, or those in the East should have time to play outside after school.” A viable solution must balance the needs of Türkiye’s densely populated western regions with those of its eastern territories.
What can be done? Türkiye spans a longitudinal difference of 1 hour and 15 minutes from east to west. Splitting the country into two time zones, as seen in U.S. states like Texas, could be an option. However, such a move entails costs and risks, deepening existing divisions in a polarized society. Maintaining a unified time zone with possible minor adjustments appears to be the most pragmatic path forward.
An alternative could be adopting a GMT+2.5 time zone instead of the current GMT+3 or the logical GMT+2. Countries like India and Iran effectively use half-hour offsets. India, for example, spans three time zones but operates on GMT+5.5 to align sunrise and sunset for its population centers. If Türkiye followed this approach, tomorrow’s sunrise in Istanbul would be at 7:56 AM, while sunset in Van would occur at 4:34 PM — a reasonable compromise.
These examples show that solutions exist for those willing to explore them. Trump’s statement also underscores a key distinction: in the U.S., decisions about daylight saving time are not at the president’s sole discretion. Perhaps Türkiye’s challenge lies in its capacity for swift but inflexible decision-making. Rapid decisions are beneficial only when coupled with mechanisms for revisiting and rectifying errors. A more deliberative process might yield better results. Judging by my social experiment — tweeting at sunrise each day last week — public engagement leans toward criticism rather than solutions: critical tweets received 20,000 views on average, while solution-oriented ones garnered just 5,000. The debate will likely subside by February when Istanbul’s sunrise shifts back to 7:30 AM.
This article is a translated version of which was”Yılın en uzun gecesine geldik”initially published in Economic Daily (Nasıl Bir Ekonomi Gazetesi) on December 20, 2024.
