Turquía: Izmir municipality to distribute free potatoes & onions
Ahead of the March 31 local elections, the municipality of Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city and a stronghold of the secularist main opposition, will distribute potatoes and onions to 35,000 families in need.
The municipalities of Istanbul and Ankara, both run by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), started selling vegetables under market prices earlier this month, as food prices jumped more than 30 percent annually in January, helping to push overall inflation up to 20.4 percent.
Critics say the move by the Islamist AKP is an election tactic to try to keep of Turkey’s two largest cities.
With food price rises responsible for inflation hovering stubbornly around 20 percent, the government has stepped up its crackdown on what it calls “food terrorists”, wholesalers it accuses of stockpiling vegetables and retailers it says are put up prices without good reason.
Izmir municipality, run by mayor Aziz Kocaoğlu from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), has agreed with local cooperatives to buy 350 tonnes of potatoes and onions. These will be distributed to 35,000 needy families in 10 kg packages. He said recipients would not have to go to the market stalls to pick up the packages and they would not pay anything for them.
Source: ahvalnews.com
Fuente: https://www.freshplaza.com/article/9077709/turkey-izmir-municipality-to-distribute-free-potatoes-onions/
