Addressing youth, Erdoğan insists students have no housing problem

Photo: AA

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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.

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"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."

Student housing protests

As universities' return to in-person classes after one and a half years of distance learning coincided with an excessive increase in rent prices across the country, especially in greater cities, students have faced a housing crisis when they returned to their schools.

On September 18, a group of university students who call themselves the "Movement of the Unsheltered" spent the night at a park in İstanbul's Kadıköy district, protesting the high housing prices.

The protests spread to many provinces, with students keeping vigils and holding marches at nights. Police have detained dozens of students in various parts of the country.

According to a study by Bahçeşehir University, rents in İstanbul, the largest city of Turkey, increased by over 50 percent in August compared to the same month last year. The rate of increase in Ankara, the capital, and İzmir, the third largest city of the country, was above 30 percent.

The insufficient capacity and high fees of dormitories are also on the target of the student protests.

There are about eight million university students in Turkey, a country of 83 million people, with millions of students studying in a different city than their hometown. The total capacity of state dormitories is nearly one million.

(TP/VK)