Retirees set up a table of simit and water: 'You have treated us like a doormat,' they shouted

Retirees held a press conference today at Kartal Coastal Square to voice their grievances and demands. Before the press statement, the United Retirees Union, which participated in the protest, set up a symbolic retiree's table featuring only simit and water.

"YOU HAVE TREATED RETIREES LIKE A DOORMAT"

Standing at the head of the table with the simit and water, one retiree said, "I worked for 28 years and paid taxes to this government. This is not what I deserved. I want to live in a way that befits human dignity. I cannot provide for my children, I cannot secure their future. I cannot make ends meet. As a retiree, I am shouting: enough is enough. You declared 2024 the 'Year of the Retiree,' yet you crushed retirees like a doormat. Enough is enough."

Furthermore, the United Retirees Union displayed the demands of retirees on a banner laid out on the ground.

THE DARKEST DAYS...

The press statement, read by EYT-EF General President Arzu Lastikçi, included the following remarks:

"We are living through the darkest and most nightmarish days we have ever experienced in our history. Listen, you holders of power who are responsible for this situation. You have exhausted the retiree, you have ended their life. You have left them in need of a single slice of bread. In the year you 'gifted' us, you pushed retirees into misery. You abandoned them to death. You turned economic policies into policies of impoverishment and caused the tears of an oppressed nation."

'YOU ARE MOCKING THE NATION'

You have also crushed those on minimum wage. With the 30% raise you provided, you have certified our misery. We do not accept the raise given to the minimum wage, which has turned from a base wage into a subsistence wage; we want wages that allow for a humane life. You have taken the bread from our hands. You have shown no respect for our sweat. Neither the worker nor the pensioner can afford our most basic and human needs. We cannot even go out in public due to a lack of money. You still claim that you haven't let us be crushed by inflation. The monster of inflation has crushed us like a steamroller, drained the marrow from the nation's bones, and you are mocking us.

You have sacrificed our precious labor to crises and crushed it. You said that you would never let my citizens ask where the state is. You said you would not wait for citizens in need to find you. You said you would go and find my aggrieved citizens. The state is at the service of its nation. You said you would keep your doors open 24 hours a day to the demands and complaints of citizens. We have no tolerance for an administrative profile that is disconnected from the public and the streets.

'HOW WILL YOU PAY FOR THIS SIN?'

We ask: the people are here in hunger and misery, where is the state? Have you given up on your nation this much? Did you not love them at all? The cries of pensioners and workers, who have been wailing for months, have shaken the heavens and the earth, yet they could not make you hear them. You have not been a remedy for 16 million pensioners and millions of workers, and you have driven them into depression. How will you pay for the sin of the infant who cannot be fed, and the 70-year-old pensioner? Our misery began with the monstrous law enacted in 2008 under the guise of reform. Pension accrual rates were lowered. We were reduced to a state of destitution by inflation rates that do not reflect reality, manipulated by the pen-pushing of the now-dependent TURKSTAT. We want a TURKSTAT that acts with justice, not by instruction.

'WE WILL NOT BE SILENT, WE WILL NOT TAKE A STEP BACK'

In our country, where the hunger threshold has exceeded 20,000 TL and the poverty threshold has surpassed 70,000 TL, we demand that the starting minimum wage be 35,000 TL. We demand that the lowest pension, including for widows and orphans, be 50,000 TL. As the EYT and Pensioners Federation, we will continue to be the voice of all grievances stemming from the Social Security Institution (SGK). We will not remain silent against those who do not value labor and sweat. We will look out for one another and fight together. We will never take a step back."

'THE MINIMUM WAGE THEATER'

Mahmut Şengül, Chairman of the United Pensioners Union, also spoke as follows:

"There is a theater that has been playing for years. The first is the minimum wage theater, and the second is the pension increase theater. Finally, they added retirees to the minimum wage theater by hosting a dinner for them at the palace. But we see that the picture at the Palace is different, and the picture of the retirees' table here is different. That is why we say that if retirees are hungry today and are known as the poorest and most victimized segment of society, the underlying reason for this stems from the AKP policies implemented for the last 22 years."

With the minimum wage announced today, let alone living, one can barely cover the rent. Pension increases will not be much different. As you know, a lawsuit was filed against TURKSTAT. We also intervened in this case. In this case, the court sent a letter to TURKSTAT. It said, 'Send us the data on whatever is in your inflation basket.' Instead of sending the data, TURKSTAT sent a letter to the court, trying to steer the court. It said, 'Even though we announce the inflation data, the Social Security Institution (SGK) determines the raises; they determine the rate, not based on the data we announce.' We also submitted a petition to the SGK, stating that a salary below the minimum wage is unacceptable and is a constitutional crime. In the letter they sent us, they say, 'Even though we determine the raises, we determine them according to TURKSTAT data.' You know there is a ping-pong ball in that inflation basket; TURKSTAT hits the retiree like a ping-pong ball, and then the SGK hits them. We are not the ping-pong ball you are playing with back and forth. We now want state institutions to act with seriousness and for the poverty and hunger of millions of retirees to be resolved as soon as possible.