Vandalized markets, deaths from homemade booze, and landlords and tenants locked in fistfights are all testament to how Turks often had to take matters into their own hands to weather a year of searing inflation.
(Bloomberg) —
Vandalized markets, deaths from homemade booze, and landlords and tenants locked in fistfights are all testament to how Turks often had to take matters into their own hands to weather a year of searing inflation.
The excesses don’t tell the whole story.
During a crisis largely created by economic policy choices, a cast of unlikely characters shot to local fame by offering quick-fix solutions or just giving voice to the rage of the population. The fastest price growth this century upended businesses and produced scenes of distress, even resulting in shortages that left Turks unable to find drugs at pharmacies.
While the government’s low interest rates and growth-at-all-costs strategy has kept the G20 economy growing, having to cope with food inflation that topped 100% often meant turning to the likes of Ozgur Aybas, one of four improbable figures who captured the spotlight.
The Liquor Man
Most of Aybas’s 100,000 followers on Twitter and Instagram do so for one simple reason: a sneak preview of price hikes on alcohol and cigarettes.
“I’m not yet aware that I’ve become popular,” Aybas said. “But people have started to approach me for selfies. University students ask for my help to get scholarships.”
Whenever this liquor store owner gets his hands on a new price list from distributors, he uploads it to social media, generally accompanied by a comment that more pain is to come. It hasn’t been without peril as he was recently slapped with a hefty fine for one such leak.
The 46-year-old, who views himself as a practitioner of civil disobedience, has had to get more creative to avoid the long arm of the law. On Dec. 1, for example, he announced a 12% hike on the “water of life.”
The Cab Man
Istanbulites can’t find a taxi when it rains. Other days, cab drivers refuse to pick them up.
This year, especially, stories proliferated of cabbies preying on tourists and ditching locals. As the face of the business in Istanbul, Eyup Aksu had to stand up to the wrath.
The head of the city’s chamber for cab owners acknowledges that 18,000-odd taxis are too few for a city of almost 16 million. But he says that’s not the real issue, as the inflation crisis leaves the industry on the brink.
“We endure the world’s most expensive fuel but get the cheapest fares,” he said. “The mayor can’t handle public transportation. As taxis are cheap, everyone wants to use cabs.”
Fares should be raised by at least 50%, but “even a 100% increase would only make up for our past losses,” said Aksu, 47, who’s been in the business since 1990. Another bane is the proliferation of electric scooters, which he says are “against the law, just like Uber.”
The Grocery Man
When Galip Aykac took to the stage on Nov. 30 as the head of the Food Retailers Association, no one expected the fiery speech against the government that was to follow.
Once an industry that flourished under Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it’s now become a convenient public target for the president in shifting responsibility for high prices.
Aykac, a top executive of discount retailer BIM Birlesik Magazalari AS, said that blaming the industry for inflation was “immoral” and “insolent.” Pointing to the gap between producer and consumer prices, he said organized retail was under assault from a “perception operation.”
A few days later, a rival grocery chain asked for Aykac’s resignation as head of the association, accusing him of making a political statement. Soon he complied.
The backdown wasn’t enough to rein in the furor. The industry veteran faced threats from pro-government politicians and a mafia boss, while footage showing a physical attack on a BIM store circulated on social media. A top official from the Nationalist Movement Party went as far as saying that the stores should be shut down permanently if they stuck with “exorbitant prices.”
The Bread Man
Among the world’s biggest consumers of bread, many Turks view the cost of a loaf as a key gauge of their well-being. Cihan Kolivar, the head of a large breadmakers union, is the unlikely dissenter who ended up in jail for speaking his mind.
Invited to comment on costs live on TV in November, Kolivar astonished the host by saying bread was the nourishment of “stupid societies.” Then he went on to say it was also the reason Turkey was being run by the same people for the past two decades.
That could’ve been a good laugh under different circumstances. But the 66-year-old was promptly detained on charges of insulting the nation and then spent nine days in jail after the charge was changed to insulting the president.
“There’s no justice in this country,” Kolivar said in an accent common to Turkey’s Black Sea region. “I felt nothing at all in jail. I didn’t care because anything can happen in Turkey.”
Kolivar thinks bread prices, which are set by provincial committees, should rise by at least 50% to cover the costs of the trade.
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