They boasted about poverty

Mustafa Bildircin

In the deliberations on the Ministry of Family and Social Services’ 2026 budget, completed at the Grand National Assembly’s Planning and Budget Committee, social assistance became the focus. In response to opposition MPs’ criticism that “poverty is rising, the social state is weakening”, AKP benches replied “We have established a system that is cited as an example worldwide”.

During the budget deliberations of the Ministry of Family and Social Services, AKP MPs virtually lined up to offer “praise for poverty”. While Minister of Family and Social Services Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş boasted about social assistance, AKP MPs also boasted about the “social assistance system”.

‘THEY WANT TO RECEIVE TRAINING’

AKP MP Orhan Yegin said that social assistance, carried out under five headings before 2002, is now carried out “under many headings” and claimed that Turkey’s social assistance system is appreciated worldwide. AKP’s Yegin said “There are those who come to Türkiye from other countries and, after receiving training, want to apply this in their own countries, saying ‘So how did you set up this system, how do you run it? How do you track it? How do you manage to ensure its accuracy at such a high rate’”.

MANAGEMENT NOT PREVENTION

AKP MP Mehmet Baykan also said that over 23 years social assistance had “ceased to be a favour and become a right”. Boasting that the ratio of social assistance to national income, which was 0.38 percent in 2002, rose to 1.13 percent in 2025, Baykan commented “The share of social assistance in the budget also rose from 1.2 percent to 4.5 percent”. Baykan spoke with praise about making applications for social assistance easier, saying “Now our citizens can complete their application with one click through e-Government without going from institution to institution”.

In response to AKP MPs’ remarks, opposition MPs assessed the rise in social assistance as “evidence that poverty has become permanent”. CHP Giresun MP Elvan Işık Gezmiş said “One in every 10 children leaves school. Young people leave the country out of despair. This grave picture has been experienced in the year you declared as the Year of the Family, during twenty-three years of your rule. Sadly children in our country are in debt before they are born, women feel uneasy even at home, young people are hopeless, the elderly are forgotten”.

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Yoksullukla övündüler, published in BirGün newspaper on November 14, 2025.