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🇹🇷 Turkey /Elections & Politics

Struggling father asks governor’s office for euthanasia as case reaches parliament

From Cumhuriyet · () Turkish

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

At a glance

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  • Ali Kılıç Kaya, a 46-year-old father of three in Gaziantep, asked the provincial governor’s office for help obtaining euthanasia, citing severe economic and psychological distress.
  • Kaya said he supports his family alone on the minimum wage while paying rent and covering the needs of three school-age children.
  • EMEP lawmaker Sevda Karaca submitted a parliamentary question about the case and criticized Turkey’s economic policies, saying they offer workers more poverty and pressure.

A 46-year-old father of three in Gaziantep has asked the provincial governor’s office to help him die through euthanasia, saying poverty and exhaustion have made life unbearable. His appeal has now reached Turkey’s parliament.

I have not had a life worthy of human dignity in this world.

· Ali Kılıç KayaKaya described the effect of his economic and psychological distress in his letter to the Gaziantep governor’s office.

Ali Kılıç Kaya said he is the only working member of his household and tries to support his family on the minimum wage. He said they live in a rented home and that all three of his children attend school. In his letter, he described prolonged anxiety, sadness and stress caused by economic conditions, adding that the strain had begun to produce health problems.

Kaya wrote, "I have not had a life worthy of human dignity in this world." He said the burden had driven him into deep physical and emotional helplessness. "Sometimes a person has to live not for themselves, but for the people they love," he wrote. "I lost that battle too. I ask our exalted state to help me die through euthanasia, of my own free will."

Sometimes a person has to live not for themselves, but for the people they love. I lost that battle too.

· Ali Kılıç KayaKaya described his despair as a father supporting three children.

Sevda Karaca, an EMEP lawmaker from Gaziantep, submitted a question to Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz seeking answers about the case. She said the father had plainly stated that he could not live a dignified life under current economic conditions.

I ask our exalted state to help me die through euthanasia, of my own free will.

· Ali Kılıç KayaKaya’s request to the state formed the central subject of his letter.

Karaca argued that poverty was pushing workers toward ending their lives and criticized the government’s Medium-Term Program. She claimed the program had been updated in favor of capital and would offer workers more "poverty and pressure." She also criticized its encouragement for citizens to have at least three children, saying it placed responsibility for their needs solely on parents. Karaca said the program contained no indication that the state would assume responsibility for school-age children’s basic needs.

poverty and pressure

· Sevda KaracaKaraca used the phrase to describe what she said the government’s Medium-Term Program promised workers.
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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