EMEP's Sevda Karaca on the fund crisis: Holding people accountable is not enough, this system must be questioned

EMEP Gaziantep MP Sevda Karaca stated that the fund crisis should not be addressed solely under the headings of victimization and corruption, but must be considered alongside the economic system.

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EMEP's Sevda Karaca on the fund crisis: Holding people accountable is not enough, this system must be questioned

Labor Party (EMEP) Gaziantep MP Sevda Karaca made evaluations regarding the fund crisis at a press conference she held at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM). Stating that what has happened cannot be seen merely as the victimization of citizens who lost their savings, Karaca said, "We have to question why people are forced to become investors in order to secure their own lives."

Stating that two weeks have passed since the emphasis was made, Karaca expressed that there are questions to which the public is awaiting answers. Demanding that the Capital Markets Board (SPK), the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, the Central Securities Depository (MKK), and other relevant institutions disclose what information they had and when, Karaca said that the investigations conducted regarding the unusual price movements seen in the last quarter of 2025 must also be revealed.

A close-up shot of Sevda Karaca taken at the TBMM press conference. — EMEP Gaziantep MP Sevda Karaca spoke about the fund crisis at a press conference she held at the TBMM.

Stating that it should be investigated why the institutions tasked with protecting citizens' savings allowed the process to reach this point, Karaca said, "We will certainly disturb the comfort of the palace cronies by pursuing these questions."

"WE CANNOT EXPLAIN THE ISSUE MERELY AS THEFT"

Arguing that the fund crisis cannot be addressed solely by identifying those responsible, Karaca said that the current economic system explains the losses in fund and stock market investments as "market risk," while a segment of the opposition reduces the issue to the narrative of "These are thieves, they ate your money." Stating that "Neither of these explains what we are experiencing," Karaca expressed that the economic structure behind the crisis must be discussed.

Karaca stated that the victims of the fund do not consist of a single social segment, and that 455 thousand people were trying to evaluate their savings. Stating that those who saved money by working for years, and those who saved for their retirement or their children's future were harmed in this process, Karaca expressed that they witnessed real victimization in their meetings with workers, teachers, retirees, housewives, and small tradespeople.

Stating that the main reason citizens turn to funds is the cost of living, Karaca said, "Because they cannot make ends meet with their salary. Because they cannot make it to the end of the month with their pension. Because they see that the few pennies they have are melting away every day against inflation." According to Karaca, people turn to financial instruments to secure their children's education, household expenses, housing needs, and retirement.

Karaca emphasized that the source of the money used for investment is largely the wages of the laborers. "In other words, a worker is crushed within the same system by selling their labor in a factory or plaza one day, and by putting the few pennies they have left into the financial market the next day," said Karaca, arguing that these savings were made part of a "mechanism of making money from money" through stocks, funds, securities, and different financial instruments.

Stating that she sees the crisis as a class issue, Karaca expressed that an investor's investment loss does not mean the same thing as a laborer losing the savings set aside for their child's university education. "A company losing profit is not the same thing as a retiree's money, saved over years, disappearing," said Karaca, adding that for laborers, the money lost often means life itself.

Karaca also argued that the fund crisis cannot be evaluated independently of the political and economic structure in Turkey. Claiming that economic decisions are concentrated in a single hand and that public power and capital relations are intertwined, Karaca said that it should also be questioned whether the judiciary can carry out a real reckoning in this process.

Stating that the lesson to be learned from the fund crisis is not just the punishment of those responsible, Karaca expressed that a system is needed where people are not forced to entrust their future to funds, tie their children's education to the stock market, or seek their retirement in individual investment accounts. Karaca said that the solution is not in "learning to invest better," but in the struggle for a humane wage, secure employment, public education and health, and the right to safe retirement and housing.