‘A fire in their kitchen’: In Turkey, dreams are shattered by economic realities

Inflation and stagnant wages make the poor poorer and destroy aspirations of the middle class, writes Borzou Daragahi

Mevlut Tekin sits with his two daughters in their rented apartment in Istanbul (Naomi Cohen for The Independent)

It was just a few years ago, before Turkey’s economy began to spin out of control, when times were pretty good for Mevlut Tekin, his wife Yasemin and their children. Mevlut had a job at an Istanbul bakery, and the kids had good clothes and plenty to eat, and once a week the family could go out to a restaurant.

The Tekins are a relatively poor working class family with roots deep in the country’s Anatolian heartland. But Mevlut was making enough that – maybe with a little help from relatives – he was even considering a plan to move out of their rented ground-floor flat in the Istanbul district of Bakirkoy and purchase an apartment, fulfilling a dream of home ownership.

Now, though, the 29-year-old works more hours than ever before as a motorcycle grocery delivery man. The family are barely hanging on. Prices have exploded as the value of Turkey’s lira has collapsed, and if it wasn’t for social services and handouts, Mevlut, Yasemin and their three children, aged two, four and five, might be living in the street.