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🇹🇷 Turkey /Economy & Trade

Retirees in Mersin Condemn High Inflation: “We Will Demand Accountability at the Ballot Box”

From Cumhuriyet · () Turkish

Translated from Turkish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Retiree organizations in Mersin criticized Turkey’s official inflation figures and said pensioners were struggling with poverty and falling purchasing power.
  • Union branch head Hüseyin Kurt said retirees would seek accountability in the first democratic election.
  • Kurt also said public-sector retirees still had not received an 8,077-lira additional raise that he described as unlawfully withheld.

Retiree groups in Mersin have rejected Turkey’s official inflation figures as unconvincing and accused the government of pushing pensioners deeper into poverty.

Members of the 2021 All Retirees’ Union, the Turkish Pensioners’ Association, the All Retirees’ Association and the Mersin branch of the Atatürkist Thought Association issued a statement about the inflation figures used to determine increases in civil servants’ and retirees’ pensions.

Prosperity is not growing, misery is. There is a buildup toward the very bottom of poverty.

· Hüseyin KurtKurt described the economic conditions facing retirees in Mersin.

Hüseyin Kurt, head of the Mersin branch of the 2021 All Retirees’ Union, said retirees were experiencing a decline in purchasing power. “Prosperity is not growing, misery is. There is a buildup toward the very bottom of poverty,” he said.

Kurt said retirees who did not own a home could not cover rent with their pensions. Those who went to markets returned with only the minimum needed to keep going, he said. “A social order that forces its retirees, widows and orphans, and older people into this misery is inhuman. It is not just,” he said. “Retirees are determined to demand accountability at the ballot box in the first democratic election.”

A social order that forces its retirees, widows and orphans, and older people into this misery is inhuman. It is not just. Retirees are determined to demand accountability at the ballot box in the first democratic election.

· Hüseyin KurtKurt condemned pension conditions and said retirees would seek political accountability.

He compared current pension levels with December 2002, when the minimum wage stood at 184 lira and the lowest pension was 257 lira, or 40% higher. Kurt said the government had deliberately reversed that relationship and reduced pensions to the level of social assistance rather than a living income.

He also said public-sector retirees had gone three years without an additional raise paid to employees. He put the disputed amount at 8,077 lira and said retirees were awaiting a Constitutional Court decision. Kurt called for retirees to unite across Turkey and said the country’s 17 million retirees would not accept poverty, homelessness and deprivation.

We are equal and dignified citizens of the Republic.

· Hüseyin KurtKurt urged retirees to unite against what he called government-driven impoverishment.
About this summary

Originally published by Cumhuriyet in Turkish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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