ISTANBUL ¨C Hobbled by restrictions on his tobacco shop, Ozgur Akbas helped organize a demonstration in Istanbul last month to protest what he called unfair rules imposed on merchants during the pandemic.
¡°There are many friends who have shut down,¡± he said in an interview. ¡°And some are on the verge of suicide.¡±
Turks had been grappling with a falling currency and double-digit inflation for two years when the pandemic hit in March, sharply worsening the country¡¯s deep recession. Nine months in, as a second wave of the virus sweeps through Turkey, there are signs that a significant portion of the population is overwhelmed by debt and increasingly going hungry.
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