Main opposition leader not allowed in Meat and Milk Board to discuss high food prices

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has visited the Meat and Milk Board, a public agency selling cheaper meat and dairy products in retail. Along with MPs of his party, Hacer Foggo, the founder of the Deep Poverty Network, accompanied him.

Late yesterday (April 7), Kılıçdaroğlu said on Twitter that he had requested an appointment from the agency "to discuss the protection of our children's right to food" but had not received a response.

Today, he visited the agency but wasn't let in the building, like his visits to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) and the Ministry of National Education in the past months.

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He spoke to reporters in front of the agency's building, criticizing the 48 price hike on red meat prices. The head of the agency had said "we increased the prices because the queues were getting too long," causing an outrage on social media.

Kılıçdaroğu also criticized Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Vahit Kirişçi, who said "Everyone is well fed," during a live TV interview last night. The minister was not aware of what was happening, he said.

"The main reason I'm here is to defend the rights of children. Adequate nutrition is a right. Adequate nutrition is a right for all children," he remarked.

"Children are struggling with hunger"

Speaking after Kılıçdaroğlu, Foggo said Turkey is not fighting against poverty but starvation now.

"According to a recent study, it was revealed that 85 percent of girls and 68 percent of boys in Turkey have anemia. This means malnutrition and having learning difficulties. It also means chronic hunger and all children struggle with it.

"The elderly and children are struggling with deep poverty and hunger. According to studies, 5 percent of the children in the Southeastern and Eastern Anatolia Regions are stunted, which means chronic hunger.

"There are children with developmental disorders in every home I visit. "I spoke to social workers last week. I asked, 'Did you ever have a childhood without a developmental disorder due to malnutrition in the house you went to?' They said, 'We didn't see it'. Seven-year-old children look like four-year-olds." (HA/VK)