From Erdoğan, the price of one and a half simits a day...

For years, I paid social security premiums so that the state would keep me comfortable in my retirement and not leave me dependent on friend or foe.

In return, as of December 2023, the pension I received was 11 thousand 800 liras.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s “my-person government” first announced that it would provide a 37 percent raise as an inflation adjustment; then, yesterday’s cabinet meeting produced an additional 5 percent raise.

In other words, Mr. Recep decided to give me, you, and the 10-plus million retirees an average of 550 liras more.

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Even a simit costs 10 liras where it is sold cheapest… When you buy cream cheese to go with it, you pay 20 liras!

With yesterday’s raise, they aren’t even giving a retiree the price of two plain simits a day!

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Ladies and gentlemen…

Those who cannot seem to slide down that damn ladder…

Those who cannot slide and disappear!

Know that you are not giving us charity or anything of the sort!

You are merely making a “repayment” in return for the money we paid to the state for years!

You used our money for nearly thirty years… You paid the pensions of the retirees of that day with the premiums we paid…

Why are you acting now as if you are giving us money out of your own pockets?

What is this arrogance, this swagger, this vanity!

The 5 percent additional raise you gave yesterday is an insult to this public.

It is humiliation.

It is mocking us with our own money.

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Let’s say we paid that money for 25-30 years not to the SSK or Bağ-Kur, but to a private insurance company…

And we retired when we met certain conditions…

Could the repayment that company would make to us every month be as arbitrary as yours?

Could the chairmen of the boards of those insurance companies come out and announce a raise rate as they please?

Wouldn’t there be a calculation for this?

Wouldn’t this calculation be explained to the rights holder?

And… Could those companies find the right to be arrogant, presenting the “repayment” they make as if it were charity?

Of course not!

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In short, yesterday’s 5 percent additional raise is not a handout distributed to the public by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

And it is certainly not a favor from his loyal men to the Turkish retiree.

These calculations are made according to “actuarial balance” accounts.

Real annual inflation and interest calculations are used.

Social states add the “state share” to the resulting “monthly repayment” amounts and keep their retirees comfortable…

But because all social security funds in our country have been “siphoned off”—meaning not a penny was left in the SSK, the Bağ-Kur, or the Social Security Institution that gathers them under its roof—the Treasury now has to step in for pensions every month.

When that happens, the gentlemen’s hands just can’t bring themselves to pay the money we deserve!

Naturally, they see themselves as our “masters” or “lords”!

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I won’t lie; if you were the managers of a private insurance company, I would sue you all!

I would drag you through the mud.

But since you are the “state”…

Since you hold the authority…

Since you are the powerful ones…

Strike as hard as you can!

And that “additional raise” you announced yesterday, which doesn’t even cover “two simits a day”…

Take it…

And enjoy eating it in your palaces!