ISTANBUL (AP) — In a dim one-room apartment in one of Istanbul's poorest neighborhoods, 11-year-old Atakan Sahin curls up on a worn sofa with his siblings to watch TV while their mother stirs a pot of pasta.
The simple meal is what the whole family of six can look forward to most evenings. Atakan, his two younger brothers and his five-year-old sister are among a third of Turkish children living in poverty.
“Look at the condition of my children,” said Rukiye Sahin, 28. “I have four children. They are not allowed to eat chicken, they are not allowed to eat meat. I send them to school with torn shoes.”
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Persistently high inflation, caused by the depreciation of the currency and the unconventional economic policies that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan implemented but later abandoned, has left many families struggling to afford food and housing. Experts say it's creating a lost generation of children who are forced to grow up too quickly to help their families make a living.
According to a 2023 joint report by UNICEF and the Turkish Statistical Institute, about 7 million of Turkey's approximately 22.2 million children live in poverty.
That deprivation is evident in neighborhoods like Tarlabasi in Istanbul, where the Sahin family lives just a few minutes' walk from Istiklal Avenue, a tourist hotspot full of brightly lit shops and expensive restaurants.
Meanwhile, the Sahins eat while sitting on the floor of their room – the same floor on which Rukiye and her husband sleep while their children sit on the couches in the room. In the cold December night, a stove burns pieces of wood to keep them warm. Sometimes they fall asleep to the sound of rats running through the building.
Atakan spends his days helping his father search through dumpsters for recyclables to provide the family with a meager income.
Poor children in Istanbul also earn money for their families by selling small items such as pens, tissues or bracelets in the bars and cafes in the city's entertainment districts, often working late into the night.
“I can't go to school because I don't have money,” he said. “We have nothing. Can you tell me how I can go? On sunny days, when I don't go to school, I collect plastic and other items with my father. We sell what we find.”
The money can be used to buy basic foodstuffs and send his brothers and sisters to school. On the days that Atakan is able to attend, he is ill-equipped to succeed, as he lacks proper shoes, a jacket, and textbooks for the English class he loves.
The Sahins are struggling to raise the money to cover rent, utilities and other basic expenses as Turkey's cost-of-living crisis continues to rage. Inflation reached 47% in November and peaked at 85% at the end of 2022. Prices of food and non-alcoholic drinks were 5.1% higher in November than in the previous month.
Under these conditions, a generation of children is growing up who rarely enjoy a full meal of fresh meat or vegetables.
Rukiye and her husband receive 6,000 lira ($173) a month in government benefits to help cover school costs, but they pay the same amount in rent for their home.
“My son says, 'Mom, it's raining, my shoes are soaking wet.' But what can I do?” Rukiye said. “The state does not help me. I'm alone in this room with my children. Who do I have but her?”
The image of children sifting through garbage to help support their families is a far cry from the image Turkey presents to the world: that of an influential global power with a vibrant economy favorable to foreign investment.
Erdogan is proud of the social programs his party has introduced since coming to power more than two decades ago, boasting that the “old days of bans, oppression, deprivation and poverty are completely behind us.”
During his speech at the G20 summit in November, Erdogan described Turkey's social security system as “one of the most comprehensive and inclusive” in the world. “Our goal is to ensure that no poor person is left behind. We will continue our work until we achieve this,” he said.
Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, charged with implementing austerity measures and curbing inflation, said the monthly minimum wage of 17,000 liras ($488) is not low. But he has promised to bring it up as soon as possible.
Although the government is allocating billions of liras to struggling households, inflation, which most people agree is well above the official figure, is draining any aid the state can provide.
In neighborhoods like Tarlabasi, rents have increased fivefold in recent years as gentrification in central Istanbul puts pressure on the housing market for low-income families.
Experts say benefits are not enough for the millions who depend on them, forcing many parents to make impossible choices: Should they pay the rent or buy clothes for the children? Should they send them to school or keep them at home to earn some extra lira?
Volunteers try to break the cycle of hardship.
Mehmet Yeralan, a 53-year-old former restaurant owner, brings essential items to the poor people of Tarlabasi that they cannot afford, such as jackets, notebooks and the occasional bag of rice.
“Our children don't deserve this,” he said, as he warmed himself on the street with a barrel of burning scrap wood. “Families are in very difficult situations. They cannot buy food for their children and send them to school. Children are on the streets selling tissues to support their families. We see deep poverty here.”
Hacer Foggo, a poverty researcher and activist, said Turkey is raising a lost generation who are forced to leave school to work, or sent to vocational training programs where they work four days and study one day a week, leaving a small portion of the income received. minimum wage.
“Look at the situation of children,” she said. “Two million of them live in deep poverty. Child labor has become very common. Families choose these education-work programs because children bring in a certain income. It is not real training, just cheaper labor.”
Foggo points to research showing how early childhood education can help break cycles of poverty. Without this, children remain trapped – stunted physically and educationally, and condemned to lifelong disadvantages.
UNICEF ranked Turkey 38th out of 39 European Union or Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries in child poverty between 2019 and 2021, with a child poverty rate of 34%.
The tragic consequences of this poverty occasionally spilled into the public arena.
The deaths of five children in a fire in the western city of Izmir in November happened while their mother was collecting scrap metal to sell. The image of their sobbing father being escorted from jail in handcuffs to attend his children's funeral sparked widespread outrage over the despair and helplessness faced by poor families.
It's a situation that Rukiye fully understands.
“Sometimes I go to bed hungry, sometimes I go to bed full,” she said. “We can't move forward, we always fall behind. …If you don't have money in hand, you always fall behind.”
In the meantime, her eldest son is clinging to his childhood dreams. “I want my own room,” Atakan said. “I want to go to school regularly. I want everything to be okay. …I would like to be a football player one day, to support my family.”
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Badendieck reported from Istanbul. Andrew Wilks in Istanbul and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed.
