TURKEY’S ‘OTHER WAR’
Bulent Kenes

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Dec 10 2007

We have been talking only about Turkey’s counterterrorism fight in the
recent months. Neither the attacks of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK) nor the struggle against the terrorist organization ceases to
be in the spotlight. Also never out of the spotlight are the slain
PKK members and our security officers we lose to our fight against
the PKK. For months we have been living with cross-border operation
scenarios triggered by the PKK terror. We have people saying, "If
it is the homeland in question, all the rest is but detail." What I
want to talk about is this "detail" part. After reading my article,
you decide whether it is really an unnecessary detail or a real war
Turkey has to wage on terrorism.

Above all, reducing the struggle of a country like Turkey merely to
a counterterrorism struggle would be the greatest of mistakes. We
should also scrutinize the socioeconomic conditions that facilitate
the terrorists’ jobs and look for remedies. Ultimately, fighting
terrorism is not possible only with an armed struggle, and we should
know that what threatens Turkey is not only terrorism, because the
"other war" Turkey has to fight is maybe more important than its war
against terrorism. It should also be known that Turkey will have more
successful results in its security-oriented wars in the event it wins
its other war against poverty, destitution and employment.

You must have read the news article about the minimum wage in Turkey,
covered on the front page of Sunday’s Zaman. If you haven’t, you must
definitely read it to understand where Turkey’s essential problems
stem from. The article explains with striking examples how the minimum
wage of 3 million people in Turkey is far from providing for even
the lowest standard of living, revealing the minimum wage reality
that concerns our 13 million citizens with all its ramifications. It
clearly emphasizes that Turkey’s "other war" is definitely not an
unnecessary detail.

Today an employee being paid minimum wage makes YTL 419 (or $358) a
month. Millions of people who earn this amount live in large families
of four, six or more and have to set aside most of this amount for
the rent of their slum houses that are devoid even of the most basic
human requirements. According to Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions
(TURK-ÝÞ) reports, a family of four needs YTL 697 monthly just to
buy food and YTL 2,200 monthly to cover mandatory expenses like food,
rent, transportation, health and education. That is, a person paid the
minimum monthly wage has no means of providing for his family’s food,
clothing, education or health needs.

Despite the 134 percent rise in their wages in the last five years
and although this pay rise is much higher than the 59 percent rate of
inflation increase, it doesn’t make much difference in their struggle
to survive in the utmost of poverty. The minimum wage’s having risen
above the rate of inflation doesn’t give much consolation, either, as
it is so low that it seriously hurts human dignity. In fact experts
state that the people in Turkey who benefited the least from 43
percent in growth in the Turkish economy in the last five years are
minimum wage earners.

If the inflation rate and the rate of the economic growth were to
be applied to the minimum wage increase, the amount in question
would have to be YTL 640 ($548). But the government is planning for
the minimum wage raise to be between 6 and 8 percent. This small
raise draws criticism even from employers hard put to keep up with
international competition. The strange thing is that when you look at
it from the perspective of employers, it doesn’t seem quite possible
to say that they are not right. The biggest responsibility here falls
on the government because the government can at least forego insurance
premiums and taxes on minimum wage earners.

Maybe it will strike you as paradoxical, but the minimum wager earners
— who live below the hunger level, to say nothing of the poverty
level – perhaps make up the relatively fortunate segment of Turkey
because the ratio of unemployed to the general population is nearly 10
percent. A total of 376,000 university graduates are looking for a job
today. The number in question is estimated to rise by 86,000 this year.

Although it is the 17th largest economy in the world, Turkey’s
ranking of 84th among 177 countries in the 2007-2008 United Nations
Development Program (UNDP) Human Development Report (HDR) explains
everything. Having risen to 84th place from 92nd in the "index"
in the last five to six years through its economic performance,
in the area of "human development" Turkey lags behind even Armenia,
which attracts attention with its poverty level. Also, Turkey ranks
last in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) region with regard to the human development index.

In brief, Turkey’s "other war" forms the mother of all wars, let
alone being an unnecessary detail. Turkey still has a long distance
to cover on this issue.

–Boundary_(ID_lzDixOqKCz3RiBG+Xf66TA)–