Elevator Death in College Dorm & more – 31st Oct 2023

Merhaba from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Turkey Update from the 31st of October twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Turkey.

Unfortunately, we start this episode with some sad news…

On Thursday the 26th, Zeren Ertaş, a senior university student, got stuck in an elevator and lost her life in a state-run dormitory. Reportedly, the elevator had some issues, and the dorm residents have already told the dormitory management about them. Defending the management, the governor of Aydın blamed the accident on the students and said that the elevator could carry up to fifteen people, but sixteen were riding the elevator. The remaining fifteen people were doing fine, at least physically.

Zeren’s death triggered a public outrage, especially from other students living in state-run dorms, also known as KYK dormitories, across the country. Students held protests against the dorm managements and complained that the rooms were underfunded and unsafe. Some students organized sit-ins in front of their dorms and chanted, “Not an accident, a murder.”

Since the accident, there have been many reports of similar elevator issues. Moreover, on Tuesday, the 31st, a group of students reported that the dorm elevator slid down five floors and hit the ground. Fortunately, the students did not sustain severe injuries.

Next up…

Thirteen Istanbul district leaders from the opposition the Democracy and Progress Party or DEVA, resigned from the party along with their executive boards. Reportedly, the district leaders left because they felt it had become too similar to the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and accused the DEVA Party leadership of being authoritarian and of promoting a culture of subservience, much like the AKP.

In total, around 500 people resigned from the party, and the head of the DEVA in the Esenyurt district said that almost twenty thousand out of forty-five thousand members would quit, as well. Word on the street is that the members will join the main opposition, the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and they are currently in talks with Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the party.

Speaking of the CHP…

It will hold its general assembly next weekend. At the assembly, the party will elect its new leader. So far, In an interview, Kılıçdaroğlu, the current leader, said he wanted to hand over the party to a good, informed social democrat. He added that he had someone in mind, but that person was too inexperienced for the post for now.

Moving on…

Back in February, after the earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş, the Tunceli Provincial Special Administration had requested seven generators from the Red Crescent for search and rescue operations in Adıyaman. However, it later came to light that the Administration didn’t send the generators to the region and has been keeping them in the Administration’s basement instead. Upon this, the governorate launched an investigation into the Administration and suspended Nazif Yıldırım, the general secretary.

The CHP’s Tunceli Provincial Chairman recently announced that the governorate has dismissed the General Secretary from his post altogether.

In unrelated news…

Recall that last Sunday, the 29th, Turkey celebrated the 100th year of the foundation of the Turkish Republic. Sedat Peker, a mafia boss living in exile in Dubai for organized crime and terrorism charges, shared a message for the Republic's centennial on a screen in Times Square. The message read, “Although many aspects of my life might be up for questioning, my honor, dignity, and love of Atatürk are not.”

One day before Republic Day, on Saturday the 28th, President Erdoğan held a relatively large pro-Palestinian rally in İstanbul with thousands attending. While addressing the public, he criticized Israel and called it a war criminal. Even though he condemned Hamas’s attack on Israeli citizens, he called Hamas freedom fighters and said that Israel was an occupier. Erdoğan also criticized the unconditional support the West gives to Israel.

Political experts said Erdoğan might have been trying to overshadow the Republic Day celebrations by holding a large rally. However, if that was the case, he was unsuccessful.

As the 100th-year celebrations went so hard that late at night on the 29th, Erdoğan announced that on Monday the 30th, schools would be closed for one day, possibly to rest after partying the whole night.

Back to rallies…

On Saturday the 28th, Erken Baş, the head of the Workers’ Party of Turkey, or TİP, finished his twenty-eight-day ‘Freedom March’ from the city of Hatay to the country’s capital Ankara. The march aimed to protest against Cem Atalay’s ongoing incarceration despite his having political immunity.

Recall that the police arrested Atalay for attempting to topple the government during the Gezi protests. The courts had said that Atalay’s immunity did not prevent him from being incarcerated. However, on Wednesday the 25th, the constitutional court said that his still being behind bars was a violation of his right to elect and be elected, as well as his right to security and liberty.

On that note…

Even though the court decided that Cem Atalay’s imprisonment violated his rights, it didn’t allow his release. It set another date for another trial, citing that the judges for his release case were on holiday. The move was called into question as the court might be stalling the trial and that there might be no other option but to release Atalay.

On a different note, the central bank increased the policy interest rate to 35%, up from the previous 25%. Recall that before the presidential elections in May, Turkey had been decreasing the rate to test out a very unconventional and evidently unsuccessful theory that high-interest rates cause high inflation. As a result of this model, Turkey has been dealing with high inflation since early twenty twenty-one. After May, the president appointed a new finance minister, and he has been increasing the rate every month to return to more conventional economic models and fight against high inflation.

While we are on the topic of economy…

On Sunday, the 29th, Google showed that the lira exchange rate dropped four liras to twenty-four liras per dollar. It got some people excited. However, it turned out that the sudden increase was due to a Google glitch.

Let’s wrap up this edition with more news on the national currency.

The value of the Turkish lira has been depreciating against the dollar in the past years. Because of this, the purchasing power dropped drastically. This rendered the metallic currencies almost useless. Currently, there are coins for five kuruş, ten kuruş, fifteen kuruş, fifty kuruş and one lira. They barely get used because there’s nothing that you can buy with change money. The government doesn’t want to admit this. However, it is becoming a noticeable problem since people have to carry around loads and loads of cash to purchase even the most basic items.

To solve this without admitting it's a problem, the government released five lira coins as a souvenir for the Republic’s 100th anniversary. Reportedly, the government released 100 million coins, worth 500 million liras, around seventeen million US Dollars. The coins entered the market on Tuesday, the 31st.

And that's it for this week!

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