A snack bar in Turkey has been seen selling gözleme, similar to crepes, with no filling, the latest attempt to provide cheap alternatives to common foods to cope with rising prices, local media reported on Monday, citing an opposition politician.
The rising cost of living has become a major source of public discontent in Turkey, where inflation hit 48.69 percent in January, the highest level since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power two decades ago, eating into the incomes of Turks.
Deniz Demir, chief advisor to main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, on Sunday tweeted a photo of a snack bar menu, with the cheapest item listed as gözleme with no filling, selling for TL 10 ($0.74).
The photo shows that other gözleme, prepared with ingredients such as cheese, spinach, mushrooms, potatoes, sausage and minced meat, are priced at between TL 17 ($1.25) and TL 33 ($2.43).
Plain baklava and grilled cheese sandwiches without the cheese after plain gözleme, Demir said in the tweet.
Turks also recently started making baklava without pistachios or walnuts and grilled cheese sandwiches with ketchup instead of cheese.
According to recent local media reports, the price of a kilo of “plain baklava” is TL 19.90 ($1.47) and a “plain grilled cheese” is only TL 2 ($0.15).
The price of a kilo of baklava increases to TL 180 ($13.2) when it’s filled with walnuts and TL 200 ($14.7) when the filling is pistachios.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday slashed the sales tax on dairy products, fruits, vegetables and other basic food items from 8 percent to 1 percent.
“All these reductions will help in our fight against inflation,” he said.
Last month, Erdoğan changed the head of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) for the fourth time since 2019, for being unhappy with the inflation figures it published, according to Turkish media.
The opposition and some economists believe that the official figures grossly underestimate the reality.
Source: Turkish Minute
