İYİ Party’s Meral Akşener calls on the government to ‘join hands’
* Photo: Metin Aktaş - Ankara / AA
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İYİ Party Chair Meral Akşener spoke at the weekly group meeting of her party at the Parliament in Ankara today (January 12).
Addressing the current issues on Turkey's public agenda, Meral Akşener talked about the economic crisis as well.
"The election is on the horizon. That ballot box will come to our nation sooner or later whether junior and senior partners of the ruling party want it or not," Akşener said in reference to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
Akşener also called out to the government about the recent passing of Enes Kara, a medical student staying at the dorm of a religious community in eastern Turkey, and feminicides in Turkey. She said:
"Enough is enough. These deaths need to be stopped now. You have children, too. I know that you are sorry about these deaths just as I am sorry about them. There is nothing political to it. Our young people and our women die every week. It is not enough to tweet after these deaths.
"Come on; let's join hands as the government and the opposition and erase the deaths of women and young people from the language of this country. My party and I are ready to sincerely make any contribution."
'12-year-old children talking about devaluation'
Further in her speech, Akşener talked about the economic situation in Turkey. Noting that since January 20, 2020, they, as the İYİ Party, have visited 79 of the 81 provinces of Turkey, Akşener said that they found the opportunity to listen to the opinions of young people, who constitute one of the sections of the society most severely affected by poverty.
"I listened to our children who were talking about hyperinflation and devaluation at the age of 12; I listened to our young people who were curious about the new minimum wage at the age of 16," noted Akşener:
"I talked to our young people working at a construction so as not to be a burden on their families and unable to go to university because they work; I talked to our young people who lost hopes of finding a job even though they had the means and studied and had callouses in their hands not because of holding pens, but because of working in agricultural fields."
'One out of every three young people are poor'
Speaking further about the problems of children and youth, she said, "Today, half of the children and one third of the young people live in the poorest 20 percent. 4.2 million children and 2.1 million young people in total... And it hurts me so bad in the heart to say that 954 thousand babies live in the poorest families where the annual per capita income is only 4,600 lira."
Addressing ruling AKP Chair and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, İYİ Party Chair Meral Akşener asked:
"Do you know that one out of every three young people of ours, whose value you hold in disregard, whose opinions you do not listen to and whom you condemn to 20 lira a day and, to make matters worse, tell them 'Shame on you', are poor? Do you know that, according to the official definition, 6.2 million of the 12.3 million poor citizens of ours are young people?"
Asking further questions to Erdoğan, Akşener also noted that 2 million of 12 million young people in Turkey do not have a computer while 1.3 million cannot buy new clothes to replace the old. According to Akşener, 1 million young people do not have a second pair of shoes, either.
She asked, "Is this the life that you deem worthy of young people" and said, "You cannot make the young people of this country pay the price for your inaptitude." Addressing Erdoğan further, she said:
"Dear Erdoğan; if you have condemned our children to poverty, deprived them of the opportunities offered by our Republic and put obstacles in the way of their future during your 20-year rule, it means that you do not deserve to sit on that seat. This is so simple..." (AS/SD)