Not a free market, but a 'free-for-all' fleecing market!

Cold Appetizers: 200 TL

Seafood Cold Appetizers: 600 TL

Hot Herb Dish: 300 TL

Calamari: 700 TL

Octopus Salad: 750 TL

Shrimp Salad: 700 TL

Shrimp Casserole: 800 TL

Shrimp with Butter: 800 TL

Grilled Octopus: 850 TL

Octopus with Eggplant Puree: 850 TL

Fried Mussels on Skewer: 150 TL

Seafood Specialties: 900 TL

Land Specialties: 450 TL

Salad (for 2): 350 TL

Beef Tenderloin: 1000 TL

Chicken Skewer: 600 TL

Meatballs: 600 TL

Dessert (1 portion): 200 TL

Dessert (ice cream/clotted cream): 300 TL

Fruit (for 2): 300 TL

Cover Charge (per person): 100 TL

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The list above is the price tariff that restaurants in the tourist district of Ayvalık in Balıkesir will apply during the Ramadan Feast holiday…

Let's say you've managed to cover the costs of gas, bridges, and highways…

And you've paid for the accommodation of an ordinary hotel room starting at 5 thousand liras per day by maxing out your credit card…

Well, what are you going to eat and drink?

You said; “Surely we aren't going to pay 300 liras for God's own hot herbs, we'll find a snack bar and satisfy our hunger…”

Here is the price tariff applied at the snack bars in Ayvalık:

Ayvalık toast: 110 TL

Toast with kashar cheese and roasted meat: 110 TL

Special toast: 130 TL

Double kashar cheese toast: 90 TL

Toast with kashar cheese and pastrami: 110 TL

Hot dog sandwich: 90 TL

Canned cola: 40 TL

Bottled ayran: 40 TL

Lemonade: 30 TL

Glass of tea: 20 TL

Coffee: 40 TL

Are these prices like this in Ayvalık, but different in Çeşme, Marmaris, Kuşadası, Bodrum, Fethiye, Alanya, or Kemer?

Certainly not…

In fact, as you go further down the map, the prices go even higher!

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Let's come to the “social morality” side of the matter…

You might say, “What does morality have to do with the price tariffs of restaurants or snack bars?”

Doesn't it?

How much could the cost of a plate of herbs possibly be?

I also live in the Aegean; when you go to the market, you see that the price of a huge bunch is at most 10 liras. It would easily make two servings…

So, the herb cost is 5 liras… Add 5 liras for the yogurt, electricity, water, bottled gas, and labor; that makes 10 liras…

If you, as the Chamber of Commerce, shamelessly set a price of 300 liras for this 10-lira plate, then I will question your morality and your decency!

In fact, that's not enough; I'll curse at you on top of it!

But not just at you; I also curse at the “sheep” who, while the nation is writhing in hunger and people are dying of heart attacks in cheap bread lines, order those herbs while smacking their lips without even looking at the price list you prepared!

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Let no one lecture me on “respect for the tradesman”…

If you are charging 300 liras for 10 liras worth of herbs, 600 liras for 20 liras worth of meatballs, 200 liras for 15 liras worth of dry tzatziki, 300 liras for 20 liras worth of fruit…

If you are selling a palm-sized kashar cheese toast that doesn't even cost 10 liras to make for 90 liras, and a glass of tea that doesn't even cost 50 kuruş for 20 liras…

I will curse, I will rebel, and I will lose my mind…

And of course, I will shout a big “Enjoy your meal” to the fools who compete with each other just to get fleeced like this under the guise of a holiday getaway.

If you had earned that money penny by penny, you wouldn't spend it in such bundles…

Easy come, easy go!

Who knows what kind of ruthless scams you are pulling in your own businesses to be able to squander money so freely?

What can I say; eat each other up…

Fleece, rip off, slurp, and smack your lips!

As for us, we will watch this immorality, this indecency, this lack of manners, and be amazed at the state the country has come to!

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In a state that doesn't tax diamonds but puts tax upon tax on baby diapers and sanitary pads; the free market naturally becomes a “free-for-all fleecing market”…

May it be blessed for both the fleecer and the fleeced…

Enjoy yourselves, have a good time.