Erdoğan's statement on minimum wage: We will manage the process with a goal that will gain the approval of our workers and not burden our employers

The Presidential Cabinet met in Beştepe under the chairmanship of President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Erdoğan made statements following the Cabinet meeting, which lasted 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Erdoğan announced that the natural gas support paid to those in need, which was between 900 and 2,500 liras, has been increased to 1,500-3,500 liras. Stating that "at the beginning of the year, an increase will be made in the wages of our employees that will neither shake the general economic balance nor compensate for their losses," Erdoğan said, "The Minimum Wage Determination Commission meetings begin on December 11. This process will be managed with the goal of a wage level that will gain the approval of our workers, not burden our employers, and not harm employment."

President Erdoğan made the following statements after the Cabinet meeting:

"I greet you with my most heartfelt feelings. As a government, we continue our work for Turkey's bright future and the peace and well-being of our region. Since our last cabinet meeting, we have left behind a busy agenda in foreign policy. Our visit to Algeria, one of our most important trading partners in North Africa, was quite successful in terms of our economic relations, especially in energy and contracting. Algeria is one of the prominent names in the Palestinian cause.

We will bring you together with real municipalism where there is investment. We discussed many issues at the MGK's November meeting. We are successfully implementing our strategy of destroying terrorism at its source. A climate of peace and security prevails in the regions we have cleared of terrorists in northern Syria. We will hopefully make the areas close to our border where terrorists are clustered safe sooner or later. With our Claw operations continuing in the Iraqi field, we have pushed the separatist terrorist organization away from our borders. We do not hesitate to tear up all scenarios by 'coming suddenly one night.' I wish success to our heroic security forces who are working selflessly inside and outside our borders.

I would like to remind those who still do not understand the strategy of the operations Turkey carries out within and beyond its borders, or those who do not digest it even if they understand, of these words:

'Some dig a well so that everyone who comes may drink

Some dig a well so that everyone who comes may fall

For our country, our nation, and all of humanity, we are digging wells of peace, tranquility, friendship, brotherhood, trust, and prosperity so that everyone who comes may drink.'

CLIMATE CRISIS

The perpetrators of the crisis that affects the lives of 8 billion people are developed, rich, and prosperous Western countries. The climate crisis is a result of uncontrolled growth and excessive consumption. The mentality that sees nature not as a trust but as a commodity to be exploited has caused great damage to our world in the last 2 centuries. We cannot prevent the climate crisis without a fundamental change in this mentality.

The fight against climate change should not lead to new injustices and a system of exploitation. It is inevitable that the countries that pollute the world the most will take on a greater financial burden in the fight against climate change.

QATAR STRATEGY

We successfully held the 9th meeting of the Turkey-Qatar High Strategic Committee, which we established in 2014. During the meetings, we signed 12 documents in different fields. On the second day of our visit, we attended the 44th Gulf Cooperation Council Summit as the guest of honor of the term president, Qatar. We will further increase our trade volume, which we have increased by more than 20 billion dollars to 23 billion dollars in the last 20 years with the council member countries.

GREECE ISSUE

We are going to Greece tomorrow. Then we will go to Hungary on December 18. We will strengthen our cooperation with the countries of the region, starting with our neighbors, on the basis of mutual respect and common interests. Every step our country takes in the political, diplomatic, and economic fields in its international platforms and bilateral relations carries us to the Century of Turkey.

MINIMUM WAGE STATEMENT

Pricing behaviors that are not logical and ethical have begun to be replaced by rational pricing. Production and exports continue with new records. In the second quarter of the year, we were the country with the best performance among OECD countries. We increased our uninterrupted growth trend, which has lasted for 13 quarters, to 14. In the first 9 months of 2023, our economy recorded a growth of 4.6 percent. There is not the slightest deviation from our goal of quality and sustainable growth. Our exports in the first 11 months of the year reached 234 billion dollars.

Despite the earthquake disaster we experienced just 10 months ago, which brought an additional burden of 104 billion to our country's economy, we do not neglect any of our people, any member of our 85 million.

At the beginning of the year, an increase will be made in the wages of our employees that will neither shake the general economic balance nor compensate for their losses. The Minimum Wage Determination Commission meetings begin on December 11. This process will be managed with the goal of a wage level that will gain the approval of our workers, not burden our employers, and not harm employment.

We see the coming year as a period of re-consolidating balances, and the following period as a breakthrough process. We will continue to struggle, walk, and reach our goals without getting tired, without getting bored, and without stopping on the path to building a great and strong Turkey.

"ISRAELI OFFICIALS WILL BE TRIED IN THE COURT OF HUMANITY SOONER OR LATER"

We went to Korea and shed blood, we gave lives. We carried out a peace operation with this sensitivity to save our kinsmen in Cyprus. We opened our doors with this understanding to people in trouble in Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, and many other places. We are protecting countless people from the Islamic world, Turkish geographies, Africa, and South Asia with this vision. We did not consent to the occupation of Karabakh, the oppression in Turkestan, and the injustices in Kashmir and Arakan with these thoughts of ours. We looked at every corner of our heartland from the Balkans to North Africa in this way. Today, we are exhibiting the same honorable stance by standing with the Palestinian people against the barbarism towards Gaza.

Israeli officials will be tried in the court of humanity sooner or later, they will serve the punishments they deserve, and they will take their place in the dustbin of history. The Western countries that give this audacity to the Netanyahu administration and cover up the crimes against humanity it commits will also share the same fate. If America and European countries had not given unlimited political, military, and economic support to Israel, the administrators of this terrorist state could not have acted so recklessly and ruthlessly.

In fact, the history of the West is quite dark, ugly, savage, and full of examples of cruelty in this regard. We know their nature from Bosnia, Greece, and Bulgaria, from the Armenian rebellions, from Palestine, from Iraq, from Syria, and from the atrocities and insidious games there. They have been stalling the world for centuries with the fallacy of Western values.

Institutions such as the UN and its most important organ, the UNSC, have become far from being the common roof of humanity with the helplessness they display in the face of oppression. The sincere efforts of Secretary-General Mr. Guterres have been blocked by some permanent members of the Security Council. While we have been shouting for years that "The world is bigger than five," we were pointing to these facts and rebelling against these injustices. I say it clearly, the more Israel, which hides under the skirts of the West, escalates its oppression, the heavier the price it will pay in the end. Killing innocent children, women, the elderly, and unarmed and helpless people with the world's most modern war tools is a wretchedness peculiar only to cowards like Israeli officials.

URBAN TRANSFORMATION LAW

Living in this geography means facing the danger in front of us and acting accordingly. The only solution shown to us by the picture in front of us is to build earthquake-resistant buildings. That is, to take this step we call urban transformation. We took this step.

In 2012, for the first time in our history, we enacted the urban transformation law. We updated and improved the legislation on the subject, especially the building inspection law. Since the date the law was enacted, we have completed the transformation of 2 million 200 thousand independent units with an investment of 480 billion liras across Turkey in the projects that have been implemented. Currently, the transformation process of approximately 400 thousand independent units is continuing across the country.

Our TOKİ presidency took on a critical role as the precursor to this process. Despite all the unfair and merciless criticisms it was subjected to, we completed 1.3 million residences through TOKİ. We delivered them to the rightful owners, but I would like to express with sadness that we found a segment that acted entirely with ideological motives in every step we took. They constantly blocked our projects with unimaginable excuses and even campaigns amounting to slander. They neither did a job themselves nor wanted us to solve this issue. They sabotaged our urban transformation project by using the loopholes in the law and confusing our people's minds with false and incorrect information. Unfortunately, we experienced the pain of this in many of our cities destroyed by the earthquake. We decided to take our urban transformation efforts to a higher level so that our citizens do not pay such prices again with their lives and property.

The process has been accelerated so that notifications can be hung on the doors of the structures, notified via e-government, and announced in the headman's offices. A financial aid provision was also added to the law to enable the implementation of the "Half is on Us" campaign for urban transformation projects in Istanbul, which is one of the places where earthquake risk is felt the most. We also allowed the development of unique models suitable for the conditions, needs, and expectations of each of our other cities. Various mechanisms were introduced, from the activation of the mediation system for the resolution of disputes to specialized courts. It was aimed to prevent abuse and delays by making it mandatory for zoning plans in transformation areas to be approved by the newly established urban transformation presidency. If the rightful owner cannot pay the debt, it is allowed to be handed over to the treasury in proportion to the debt of the transformed residence and allocated to the rightful owner free of charge again. It was ensured that all areas unsuitable for settlement are determined as risky areas and construction is not allowed in these areas.

EARTHQUAKE HOUSING

We will deliver 46 thousand of the 250 thousand independent units that have started construction to their rightful owners before the new year. We will continue the delivery of the completed residences in the following months. By listening to the demands from our citizens, we have also put into operation new models that will facilitate on-site transformation and include grant and loan support. The number of applications for the on-site transformation project reached 247 thousand. We have also allocated 40 billion in resources for the use of our relevant institutions. We have allocated 1 trillion liras in our 2024 budget for the reconstruction of our earthquake-stricken cities. We are not only building houses in our cities in the earthquake zone, but we are also reviving the commercial areas and cultural structures that give these cities their identity. In addition, we, as the government, are also building the squares, city centers, and important main streets of these cities. We have also resolved and are resolving the problems related to roads and transportation investments damaged in the earthquake."

News Source: 12punto