COLEMÊRG – The ongoing economic crisis is increasingly making daily life more difficult for citizens. Residents of Colemêrg (Hakkari) say that with the deepening crisis people have become dependent even on bread.

 

The economic crisis affecting cities across Turkey and Kurdistan continues to make daily life harder for citizens. Rising food prices, rent, basic necessities and constant price hikes have significantly reduced people’s purchasing power. Residents of Colemêrg say they feel the deepening poverty more and more each day.

 

Stating that people can no longer afford bread, residents said the situation must change, but that it will be difficult.

 

Hamdi Taşkın said that there are no employment opportunities in the city, adding that people’s only hope is jobs provided by the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR). However, he claimed that applicants who are not affiliated with the Justice and Development Party (AKP) are not hired. Taşkın said this creates a strong sense of injustice among people and emphasized that the government’s discourse is very different from the reality people experience.

 

Ali Rıza Sayimoğlu said that decent wages are necessary for people to make a living and added that the government will pay the price for pushing the public into economic hardship by losing elections.

 

Citizen Sergen Özatak stated that everything has become more expensive and that people no longer know what to do. He stressed that the economy must improve.

 

Salih Duman said that livestock breeding and farming are almost finished. He noted that there are no industrial facilities or factories in Colemêrg, trade is limited and the existing mines operate only for export purposes. “No one can see their future anymore,” he said.