Media Wire

Turkish opposition chief raps Erdogan over rising cost of living

A video has gone viral in Turkey that shows the opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu holding an onion in the kitchen of his house, meant to criticize the government economic policies. A cost-of-living crisis amid rampant inflation and years of economic turmoil have eroded President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's support.

Kilicdaroglu once again shared a video from his kitchen, criticizing the Turkish government’s economic policies.

In a video titled “Onion,”Kilicdaroglu said that the real agenda is the economic turmoil of Turkey.

“They know that when I assume power, democracy will come, money will flow to the country, currencies will fall, and your purchasing power will increase. It’s that simple. Now, one kilogram of onion is 30 liras, if (Recep Tayyip Erdogan) stays it will be 100 liras. This is just onion,” he stated.

According to the Union of Chambers of Agriculture of Turkey data, the highest price increase was seen in onion with an annual rate of 314.6 percent in the food category in 2022. This was followed by lemon with 202.8 percent and granulated sugar with 164.5 percent.

In the past weeks, social media users posted photos showing one kilogram of onion cost 30 liras.

The government-run Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) reported an annual inflation rate of 50.51 percent in March, whereas the independent inflation group ENAG put the figure at 112.51 percent.

“What they described as their ‘mastery period’ in the last election dragged our country into collapse in every field,” Kilicdaroglu added.

“The government started a terrible propaganda of slander, lies and fraud. In order to cover up the facts, they are trying to deceive you, with all kinds of strange and artificial agendas such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) (connections), religious abuse over prayer rugs, and analogy to the martenitsa bracelet,” he continued.

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