Addressing youth, Erdoğan insists students have no housing problem

Photo: AA

Click to read the article in Turkish

President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has once again denied that university students have a housing problem.

"There is no such thing as a dormitory problem for our girls and boys," he said yesterday (October 10) at a meeting with young people in the southern province of Adana.

"Have you ever got a scholarship of 45 lira? When we assumed power, the scholarship was only 45 lira," he remarked.

Since mid-September, students across Turkey have been protesting high housing prices and the insufficient capacity of dormitories.

The president has dismissed the protesters as "terrorists," citing the increase in student loans and scholarships, as well as dormitory capacities in the last two decades.

CLICK - Erdoğan says students protesting housing prices are 'terrorists like those in Gezi Park

CLICK - Erdoğan calls student housing protesters 'liars'

"Since my high school years, for 40 years, I walked with young people. From culture and art activities to my political duties, I did it with the youth," he said. "If you happen to come to the [Presidential] Complex one day, you'll see that our team comprises young people."

Also touching on Turkey's ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement last week, Erdoğan said, "If not us but another administration took that step, they would place them on a pedestal. But the same people are deaf and blind now because we did this."

"In the green development revolution, we et the greatest support from our young people. Just as Turkey differentiated itself from other countries during the pandemic with its strong healthcare infrastructure, we'll achieve the same success in the climate change.

"Tomorrow, you'll pick up the baton for this 1,500-year struggle for civilization and the 1,000-year struggle for the homeland. I want our youth to contemplate for the vision of 2053, that we show the first goals of which with the national technology move and the green development revolution."

(TP/VK)