Yeniden Refah leader Erbakan: 'Early elections as soon as possible'

Yeniden Refah Party Chairman Fatih Erbakan met with members of the press in İzmir during the Anatolian Meetings program held at a hotel in the Bayraklı district. Making assessments regarding the current agenda, Erbakan criticized the economic situation with harsh words. 

Erbakan stated, "The economic picture we are facing is such that the truth can no longer be hidden. In the face of such a picture, our expectation from the government is to implement early elections as soon as possible and bring the ballot box before the nation."

Erbakan said that 80 percent of the public in Turkey is struggling to live below the poverty line, and 45 percent is struggling to live below the hunger threshold. 

Stating that the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) has announced that "the fitra (charity) that should be given to poor Muslims can now also be given to retirees and minimum wage earners," Erbakan expressed that this clearly shows how millions in Turkey have been impoverished and how much purchasing power has fallen.

Fatih Erbakan stated that according to the announced January inflation figures, the purchasing power of the minimum wage and pension melted by another 5 percent in January, the purchasing power of the minimum wage fell to 21 thousand 45 liras, and the hunger threshold in Turkey is 22 thousand 131 liras. 

Erbakan said the following: 

"In 2025, hardship and a struggle for survival await minimum wage earners and retirees once again. The number of our citizens who have entered legal proceedings because they cannot pay their individual loan and credit card debts has reached 2 million 558 thousand. 2 million 558 thousand citizens have faced legal proceedings because they could not pay their credit card and individual loan debts. There are also 3 million 933 thousand people who have not yet fallen into legal proceedings despite being unable to pay their debts because the 90-day legal period has not expired. In other words, a total of 6.5 million of our citizens have become victims of being unable to pay their credit card and individual loan debts. This is an indicator of how the household debt burden in Turkey has increased and that purchasing power and payment capacity have completely disappeared. 

96 percent of the banknotes in circulation in Turkey are 100 and 200 lira notes. Normally, according to international central bank standards, when the amount of the highest denomination banknote in emission reaches 50 percent, a higher denomination banknote should be issued; however, the government is resisting issuing these 500 and 1000 lira banknotes to hide the loss of value in the TL and the loss of prestige of our currency. The daily withdrawal limit at bank ATMs is being raised to 10 thousand liras. Banknotes under fifty liras are also being removed from bank ATMs. All these facts clearly show how the purchasing power of the Turkish lira has eroded and how our money has become worthless. One of the most important indicators of this—that is, an indicator of what has become of the 200 lira banknote, the highest value of the TL—is the President distributing 200 lira banknotes as pocket money to children during his provincial visits. While 5, 10, and 20 lira banknotes used to be given to small children as pocket money, today the President himself has to give 200 lira banknotes as pocket money. Of course, our banknote, our Turkish lira, our money has come to this state. An indicator of what has become of our minimum wage is that the price of a Republic gold coin has exceeded the minimum wage. At the point we have reached today, we say 'from where to where, and it was a dream, it became reality.' Citizens who used to say 'we buy three, four, five gold coins with the minimum wage, and we even put some aside for savings' have now reached a point where they cannot even buy one gold coin with the minimum wage."

News Source: 12punto