The back of the people hunches: There is no tailor so unjust.

Although the increase in VAT rates, as well as the successive increases in fuel prices, profoundly affect all segments, small merchants suffer from not being able to sell due to the increase in costs, from not being able to live on their pension and from peasant by not being able to sell their harvested products at the prices they deserve.

HE LISTENED TO THE STRESS AND REQUESTS OF CITIZENS

CHP Eskişehir MP Utku Çakırözer met citizens at Eskişehir Emek Mahallesi cafes and Beylikova district market.

Çakırözer and party members talked with pensioners, shopkeepers and farmers in the district’s bazaar and coffee shops, and listened to their problems and demands.

“There is no tailor without justice”

In Eskişehir’s Emek district, one of the neighborhoods where the AKP government received the most votes, shopkeepers criticized CHP deputy Utku Çakırözer, who visited it, for price hikes and rising costs.

A key maker, who claimed that fuel hikes and increased VAT rates affected his own business, said: “It used to cost 150 lira to open a door, now we have to open it for 200, 250 lira. This is how the rise in VAT and fuel is affected. A remote control that we bought for 80 lira a week ago becomes 150 lira a week later. We ask the wholesaler and he tells us ‘the dollar has risen’. I also have to reflect it. If there is a problem, let’s get through it together, but such an unfair tailor will not be. When it comes to words, the Justice and Development Party is good, nice, but where is the justice in this? I am telling you what the citizens have said,” he said.

“WE CANNOT GO TO THE SHAVE BECAUSE IT IS EXPENSIVE”

Hairdressers and their clients also complained about the cost. The men’s barber that Çakırözer visited stated that shaving of hair and beards, which used to cost 80 lira, has increased to 150 lira, while his client said: “If before we came every 15 days, but once a month, now we come to the hairdresser in a month and a half or two. We can’t even cut our hair or beards.”

“WE ARE SHARING FOR OURSELVES!”

The local butcher, who is concerned about stagnant business, said: “It is no longer easy to find meat or find customers. The citizen is now pissed off. If we apply a 25 percent, 30 percent increase here, we won’t be able to sell anything. We are sacrificing, we are reducing the numbers a little more,” he said.

“NO MONEY LEFT IN NARROW INCOME”

Pide maker, who has been a merchant in the neighborhood for many years, said: “We can’t reach the middle and upper layers anyway. If there’s money in the low-income lower class, it’s my job, and they no longer have purchasing power. If they don’t have money, I’m in trouble too. Lahmacun was 20 lira, I made 30 lira. I can’t increase it any more,” he said.

“THE PENSIONS SHOULD IMPROVE”

Çakırözer, who listened to retirees, shopkeepers and farmers in the district’s cafes, said:

* They made raise after raise on everything, but they forgot about the retreat. Retirees are struggling to survive on their sub-famine wages of more than 11,500 lira. Wherever we go, we worry about wages, financial difficulties, and raises.

*Our pensioner, who could buy 15 grams of gold with his 257 lira pension in 2002, can now only buy 4.5 grams of gold with 7,500 liras. It is urgent to increase the purchasing power and salaries of retirees. Most are retired here. They dishonored the retiree.

*Will people pay their rent, keep their house, do their shopping with 7,500 liras? He has no money to pay for the exchanges. In Eskişehir, both in the center and in the countryside, our citizens have only one agenda and that is the lack of livelihood and the cost of living. In the market, citizens can now buy vegetables by grams and fruits by grains.

* Sellers cannot do business. The weight of the tomatoes exceeded 20.25 lire, a lettuce to make a salad is 20 lire. Parsley, which used to be sold for 1 lira, arugula 5 liras, 7 liras. Most of the citizens, who cannot get close to the fruits, take fruits with grains and take them home.

* With the rain of increases and tax increases, they loaded it on the backs of the citizens. Diesel prices increased 106 percent in 3 months. While those in the palace live happily on their sweet salaries, our citizens suffer from mismanagement in the economy in the bazaars and markets.