Representatives of the government argue that Türkiye has experienced the golden years of the history of the republic in the last 25 years. Economic staff also state that from time to time, expensiveness will no longer be a problem. Citizens speaking at Koşuyolu Market complained about having to work in the market after their 70s, let alone the golden years. A producer woman who was trying to sell the tomatoes and peppers she brought from her garden said, "What a golden age, we haven't experienced it yet. I can't stand in my shalwar at this age. I have high blood pressure. I have two or three hernias in my neck and I can't bend down. Look, I'm sitting on the chair. What's the gold? We couldn't see the gold, but only those who have seen it have seen it. It didn't come to us, it didn't come. It didn't happen to the villagers..."
AKP President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on the 25th anniversary of his party's establishment that "they made Türkiye experience the golden years of the history of the Republic." Government spokesmen also occasionally emphasize that they will stop expensiveness from being a problem by reminding them of the investments made and the measures taken. However, citizens who are struggling to make ends meet experience expensiveness as a problem and emphasize that the golden years are far away for them.
HE STARTED MARKETING AFTER 70
Citizens in Kadıköy Koşuyolu also complained about the high prices and said that they had suffered much more in recent years. A woman who explained that she had to work as a marketer after the age of 70 to make ends meet stated that only her husband had a pension and said, "I don't have a salary. We used to buy it for our house and our car, but now we gave it to a contractor and we can't even pay that. Look, my bills haven't been paid, I'm going to the market to pay them. It's very difficult, it's very difficult to make ends meet."
"UNDER WHAT? WE COULDN'T SEE..."
A producer woman trying to sell the tomatoes and peppers she brought from Pendik Göçbeyli said, "What a golden age, we haven't experienced it yet, girl. I can't stand like this here, at this age, wearing shalwar. I have blood pressure. After that, I have two or three hernias in my neck, I can't bend down. Look, I'm sitting on the chair. Look, what's the gold? We couldn't see the gold, but those who saw it have seen it. It didn't come to us, girl. It didn't come to us. Nothing like that happened to the villagers..."
"WE ARE STARVING"
The woman, who tried to contribute to her home's budget by selling the products she brought from her own garden, expressed the problems of the producers as follows:
"There is no sales or anything. The goods worth three pennies we brought are still the same. There is no way we can make money from them. (When do you sell?) Well, we have been in the markets for thirty years, girl. (How do you evaluate the situation? How have you been selling in recent years?) Oh girl, those are the old days, we were living in Europe back then. Now we are starving.
If the villagers say this, the city people are already finished. (Where do these come from?) From Göçbeyli. Fields etc. are always empty. We don't plant, we won't plant anyway. He doesn't win anything, he doesn't win anything. You start a beet engine, it burns 5 thousand lira of diesel. So what will you do? 3 times a day... Come on and water it. Even if you don't water, the plant dies. How will we do this? We can't. (How do you get along?) How do we evaluate what we do ourselves? We make a living from it. (Are you retired?) I'm not. We couldn't pay the pension thing. I couldn't pay, I couldn't pay, I couldn't.
"FARMERS SHOULD BE SUPPORTED"
We had Farmer Bag-Kur but we couldn't pay it. Where will I find another 20 or 25 liras of money every month? I don't earn 20 lira or 25 lira so that I can pay retired Bag-Kur. I've been checking since the morning and we haven't weighed more than a kilo yet. Half a kilo, half a kilo, half a kilo. 20 lira, 30 lira. What can people do, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no girl, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. (What were sales like a few years ago?) It was better. It was better. It's been a little better so far. It was better 8-10 years ago. The people's wages were low, but their purchasing power was high. But not now. Do you know what this is Türkiye's biggest problem? Good support for farmers and villagers. It will provide support for animals, vegetables, sowing, planting and diesel.
If this tomato costs 50 lira for the villager, I will sell it for 20 lira. Because everyone around will produce it. What will happen? He will plant his wheat and his corn. After that, if he has a greenhouse, he will build it and plant it. Only this will happen to this country. There is no one left in the villages, my daughter. There is nothing left. I have four children after me. One of them wouldn't come in and do this gardening job. My field is empty. I'm going to eat this for myself... Its engine is different, its driving is different. Separate fertilizer, separate water, separate diesel fuel. These always come with money. My daughter does not return for free.
(So, was it producing more in the past?) There was more production. Yes, yes. Just like our place, it is a greenhouse garden. When you say Göçbeyli, Göçbeyli feeds half of Istanbul. I was shooting (sending) a ton of goods a night. A ton of cucumbers, a ton. It was at least 150 years away. What happened? There isn't even one now...
We also had animals. I sold it, the other one sold it. If you see the barns, the huge barns are always empty. Why should we sell this? A bale of hay costs 200 liras. Come on, take this, my daughter, and feed the animals. How will you feed them? Can you feed them? You can't feed it. If you can't feed it, you can't buy it. At that time, milk was expensive and cheese was expensive. What did Ataturk say? He said that the villager is the master of the city (nation). Why did he say that? He knows you will come from there and eat here. "How will you eat this tomato if I don't bring it?"
"WE WERE HAPPY TO BUY EVEN A LITTLE 25 YEARS AGO"
"Do you think you have lived the golden years for 25 years?" Another citizen responded to the question: "No, I don't think so. We got worse and worse, first slowly, for 25 years... 25 years ago, even if we bought less, everything in life was cheap. We were able to get by. We were happy. But now everyone's face is this grumpy. We just can't get by. If you don't have your own house with a pension, you won't be able to survive at all... Children are supporting you," said another, "Is there such a thing as a Republic left? There is nothing left. "Our country is heading towards destruction," he said.
Other citizens' opinions are as follows:
"Look, it is taken like that by thinking and calculating inch by inch. We have already forgotten that we live comfortably. We should not forget, but we forget, of course, we are looking for those days."
“(Laughing) Golden years? That's a very good question. So it seems. I can't see the golden year. (What if you evaluate it economically? Do you remember your livelihood 25 years ago?) Of course, I mean, as much as there is now. Living was better... You see the pensioner's money. What happens with that? You go to a market. Don't buy anything. Again, one and a half to two thousand lira goes..."
"WE COULD NOT GO TO THE MARKET IF WE DID NOT KNOW OUR ACCOUNT AND OUR BOOK"
"Citizens are very troubled... We could not fill the bag completely with 2500 liras. There are two of us. I bought tomatoes, I bought peppers, I bought fruit. We bought onions. That's all. There is no meat, no oil, no salt in this. What should a citizen do? We have a house with a double salary. We're just getting by. If we do not know our accounts and books, we cannot go to the market or the market. It's that simple. "They are talking there for nothing."
"Government spokespeople have been saying for 25 years that everything would be fine and they have been saying that. So should we believe it now? I never believe it. I am 62 years old, so everything we have experienced and seen, unfortunately, the governments are always right from their own perspective, but the people never think and have never thought like the government. This cannot happen. Unfortunately, the government says the classic, cliché things they need to say to keep the people asleep for their own interests. - Does anything reflect in my pocket or your pocket as the government says? No. How to believe in power
"Political power always makes statements that make itself look good. Economic policy does not make this seem possible in the coming period. Therefore, expensiveness will most likely continue as a fact of our lives in the coming years."
