TWENTY YEARS OF TYRANNY
Unhappiness doubled in Turkey during AKP era, according to official statistics
Ahval
Feb 17 2022
The rate of unhappiness in Turkey has more than doubled under nearly two decades of Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, according to official statistics published on Thursday.
A survey by state-run Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) showed 16.6 percent of people in the country reported being unhappy in 2021.
The figure is up from 9.3 percent in 2003, when TÜİK began collecting the data, a year after the AKP came to power.
The overall rate of happiness also declined in the same time period. In 2021, 49.3 percent of people said they were generally happy, down from 59.6 percent in 2003.
Unhappiness has been steadily growing in Turkey since 2016, coinciding with the failed military coup against the AKP government earlier in the year.
A subsequent government-led purge saw hundreds of thousands of people jailed, removed from their jobs, or otherwise persecuted over alleged links to religious cleric Fethullah Gülen, whose followers are widely believed to have led the coup attempt.
The crackdown quickly went on to include other government opponents, including figures such as Kurdish political leader Selahattin Demirtaş and liberal philanthropist Osman Kavala, both of whom remain in prison.
It has also been a turbulent period for the Turkish economy, which is currently experiencing its second currency crisis since 2018. The Turkish lira lost 44 percent of its value against the dollar last year amid President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s insistence that the central bank keep interest rates low.
Meanwhile, Inflation surged to nearly 50 percent in January, putting households under growing financial pressure.
Unhappiness doubled in Turkey during AKP era, according to official statistics
Ahval
Feb 17 2022
The rate of unhappiness in Turkey has more than doubled under nearly two decades of Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, according to official statistics published on Thursday.
A survey by state-run Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) showed 16.6 percent of people in the country reported being unhappy in 2021.
The figure is up from 9.3 percent in 2003, when TÜİK began collecting the data, a year after the AKP came to power.
The overall rate of happiness also declined in the same time period. In 2021, 49.3 percent of people said they were generally happy, down from 59.6 percent in 2003.
Unhappiness has been steadily growing in Turkey since 2016, coinciding with the failed military coup against the AKP government earlier in the year.
A subsequent government-led purge saw hundreds of thousands of people jailed, removed from their jobs, or otherwise persecuted over alleged links to religious cleric Fethullah Gülen, whose followers are widely believed to have led the coup attempt.
The crackdown quickly went on to include other government opponents, including figures such as Kurdish political leader Selahattin Demirtaş and liberal philanthropist Osman Kavala, both of whom remain in prison.
It has also been a turbulent period for the Turkish economy, which is currently experiencing its second currency crisis since 2018. The Turkish lira lost 44 percent of its value against the dollar last year amid President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s insistence that the central bank keep interest rates low.
Meanwhile, Inflation surged to nearly 50 percent in January, putting households under growing financial pressure.
Over 70 pct of Turkey's Generation Z favours living abroad - survey
Last Updated On: Feb 16 2022
http://ahval.co/en-136672
Over 70 percent of Turkey’s population aged 18-25 said they would prefer to live abroad if given the opportunity, according to a new survey by German political foundation Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS).
Of the participants in the survey, based on in-person interviews with over 3,200 youth in 28 Turkish provinces between May-September 2021, 62.8 percent said they failed to see a "good future" for the country, while 35.2 percent said they were “completely hopeless” about Turkey.
The survey arrives amid an economic crisis in Turkey, which has forced citizens to grapple with the country’s highest inflation rate in almost two-decades. Turkey is struggling with a volatile lira, which lost 44 percent of its value last year, making it by far the worst performer in emerging markets.
Meanwhile, the country’s youth unemployment rate rose by 1.7 percentage points in January to 22.3 percent, according to official data.
Over 82.9 percent of respondents said that they believed wealth and income were not distributed equally in Turkey while 87.3 percent said the country’s unemployment rate of 11.2 according to official records was too high.
Of those surveyed, 25.8 designated themselves as having “unhappy’’ lives, while 55.2 percent of respondents said they were “neither happy nor unhappy” with their lives.
Speaking on Turkey’s government, 62.5 percent respondents said they were unhappy with how Turkey was being ruled, while 5.9 percent said that they were happy with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government.
Erdoğan has been in power for almost two decades, making him the only leader of Turkey the respondents have witnessed to date.
When asked who they would vote for if a general elections were held between May and September of this year, the main opposition Republican People’s Party received the lion’s share of support with 23.9 percent, followed by 4.9 percent for opposition centre-right Good Party, 4.7 percent for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party and 4.4 percent for AKP’s far-right ally, the Nationalist Movement Party.
Meanwhile, 44.7 percent of those surveyed did not answer the election question, citing that they were either “undecided,” “would not cast a vote,” or “did not want to answer the question.’’
The 18-25 demographic, known as Generation Z, comprises seven million of Turkey’s population, whose majority will experience their first election as voters in the next polls scheduled for 2023.
Over 70 percent of Turkey’s population aged 18-25 said they would prefer to live abroad if given the opportunity, according to a new survey by German political foundation Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS).
Of the participants in the survey, based on in-person interviews with over 3,200 youth in 28 Turkish provinces between May-September 2021, 62.8 percent said they failed to see a "good future" for the country, while 35.2 percent said they were “completely hopeless” about Turkey.
The survey arrives amid an economic crisis in Turkey, which has forced citizens to grapple with the country’s highest inflation rate in almost two-decades. Turkey is struggling with a volatile lira, which lost 44 percent of its value last year, making it by far the worst performer in emerging markets.
Meanwhile, the country’s youth unemployment rate rose by 1.7 percentage points in January to 22.3 percent, according to official data.
Over 82.9 percent of respondents said that they believed wealth and income were not distributed equally in Turkey while 87.3 percent said the country’s unemployment rate of 11.2 according to official records was too high.
Of those surveyed, 25.8 designated themselves as having “unhappy’’ lives, while 55.2 percent of respondents said they were “neither happy nor unhappy” with their lives.
Speaking on Turkey’s government, 62.5 percent respondents said they were unhappy with how Turkey was being ruled, while 5.9 percent said that they were happy with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government.
Erdoğan has been in power for almost two decades, making him the only leader of Turkey the respondents have witnessed to date.
When asked who they would vote for if a general elections were held between May and September of this year, the main opposition Republican People’s Party received the lion’s share of support with 23.9 percent, followed by 4.9 percent for opposition centre-right Good Party, 4.7 percent for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party and 4.4 percent for AKP’s far-right ally, the Nationalist Movement Party.
Meanwhile, 44.7 percent of those surveyed did not answer the election question, citing that they were either “undecided,” “would not cast a vote,” or “did not want to answer the question.’’
The 18-25 demographic, known as Generation Z, comprises seven million of Turkey’s population, whose majority will experience their first election as voters in the next polls scheduled for 2023.
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