Turkey: Opposition Slams Hazelnut Price, Questions 'Framework Law' Secrecy

Lawmakers in the Turkish Parliament's General Assembly voiced strong opposition to the government's hazelnut purchase price, deeming it a "shock" to producers and significantly below the actual cost of production. CHP Niğde Deputy Ömer Fethi Gürer stated that his party's research, conducted with Agriculture Commission member Mustafa Adıgüzel, calculated the necessary price at 370 lira per kilogram, factoring in input costs and a reasonable profit. The announced price of 250 lira, he argued, falls short of covering these expenses and is below the inflation rate.

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The producer's input costs are rising, there are foreign monopolies profiting from the product leaving our country, but our country's producer is being strangled in this context.

Gürer highlighted the disparity between rising production costs for farmers and the profits reaped by foreign monopolies, stating that Turkish producers are being "strangled" in this environment. He urged the government to revise the hazelnut purchase price to reflect the true costs and ensure a fair return for farmers. Similarly, CHP Group Deputy Chair Sevda Erdan Kılıç criticized the prices, noting that the increase from last year's Giresun quality hazelnut price of 200 lira to this year's 255 lira represents only a 27.5% rise. She questioned whether the costs of fuel, fertilizer, pesticides, or labor had decreased, asserting that none had, making the price increase insufficient.

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Don't mock the producer's intelligence.

Beyond agricultural concerns, İYİ Party Group Deputy Chair Turhan Çömez raised serious objections to a proposed "framework law" related to the "Terror-Free Turkey" process. Çömez accused the government of secrecy, stating the law had been hidden from the public and was unconstitutional. He argued that the government, after 24 years in power, was bringing a law that suggested the country was negotiating from a position of weakness with a terrorist organization. Çömez demanded transparency, calling for the law to be debated openly in larger forums and for key ministers and intelligence officials to appear before the commission.

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You have been in power for twenty-four years, and now you are bringing a law proposal here. Without doing all of this, or if you did it and couldn't succeed, you are bringing this country to a negotiation table as if it has lost a war, in a position of kneeling before a terrorist organization.