Breaking News... Özgür Özel's response to Erdoğan on SGK debt: Give retirees 17,500, we will pay it all off

Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Özgür Özel spoke at his party's Provincial Mayors Meeting.

Özel responded to AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has targeted CHP-run municipalities over their Social Security Institution (SGK) debts.

Özel announced that if retirement pensions were raised to 17,500 TL, CHP-run municipalities would pay off all their SGK debts.

Highlights from Özel's speech are as follows:

"All municipalities in Turkey hold 3 percent of the total SGK debt. That 3 percent is the debt of our municipalities. The other 97 percent is other debt. If you were to announce who owes money to the SGK, let us see. 35 percent of our debts are already debts we inherited from the AK Party. Another 35 percent are debts we inherited from the AK Party in the past, with interest added on top. A portion of it is our debt, although it is far behind that of AK Party-run municipalities.

"He speaks as if paying these debts to the SGK today would allow for a raise for retirees today. Let me say this: make the retirement pension 17,500 TL, and all of us, the CHP-run municipalities, will immediately pay off all our debts."

News Source: 12punto