Recently released images of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s new summer palace have outraged Turkish civilians struggling to provide food for their families, the National reported on Thursday.
Built two years ago, the first images of the $74 million palace north of Marmaris come as much of the Turkish public grapples with increased poverty and record levels of inflation.
The release of the images coincided with widely derided comments from Erdoğan’s wife Emine, who suggested people reduce their meal portions to prevent waste. Many citizens responded by pointing to her own indulgence in luxury brands, the National said.
“They tell us to cut down on our food but they have money to spend on handbags and to build luxury palaces in Marmaris,” Hasan Ozbilek, a 71-year-old pensioner who sells tissues in Istanbul, told the National.
“The president has always said he represents ordinary people, and he came from humble roots himself, but now we see that he lives like a sultan while everyone else struggles,” he added.
Burak Erbay, an opposition MP in Muğla, where the new palace was built, said that Turkish people are “sick and tired” of such hypocrisy from their country’s leaders.
“It’s not only about the (palace) here, there’s the one in Ankara, the one in Van. It’s about all these private aeroplanes, jets. While people are struggling to put bread on the table, they see all this luxury and extravagance and of course, they get angry,” he told the National.https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/2021/07/08/erdogans-luxurious-summer-palace-pictures-infuriate-turks-left-hungry/