look news india
An extremely painful and shocking case of how rising inflation, unemployment and financial crisis at the global level can break a common man has come to light from Turkey. A major protest was organized by pensioners regarding their demands outside the country’s highest judicial institution ‘Constitutional Court’ in the Turkish capital Ankara. During this nationwide protest, a 60-year-old retired policeman suddenly took out his service gun and shot himself. This incident created chaos on the spot and there was shouting at the protest site.
The seriously injured retired policeman was immediately admitted to the nearby Ghazi University Hospital for emergency treatment, where doctors declared him brought dead. Investigations by Turkish media outlets have identified the deceased as 60-year-old Ali Sekeroglu, who had been demanding a pension hike and a better economic life for a long time.
According to eyewitnesses of the incident and media reports, Ali Sekeroglu’s financial condition had become very pathetic. There were two sons in his family who were completely unemployed, due to which it became impossible for him to manage the household and living expenses. According to a report in IntelliNews, shortly before committing suicide, he had expressed his pain while talking to the crowd present during the demonstration. He said that recently a grandson or granddaughter was born in his house, but he was unable to buy even a small traditional gold coin on this happy occasion.
Ali Sekeroglu, wearing the Turkish national flag, was holding a poster in his hand on which very emotional and poignant words were written – ‘Not for money, but for our respect.’ Shortly after this, he warned the people standing nearby not to come near him and took out his licensed service gun and shot himself in the head.
Hours before ending his life, Ali Sekeroglu shared a very serious and thoughtful message on his official Facebook page. Through this post, he had appealed to his fellow pensioners and senior citizens to actively participate in this nationwide protest.
He wrote in his message, “Unity is the real strength. Let us raise our voice as one for our constitutional right to live and earn our living with dignity. Oh God, you hear the cry within us, may those who rule our country and us also hear our helplessness.” His last message has sparked a new debate on Turkish social media.
This is not an isolated incident, but is the result of simmering dissatisfaction among pensioners due to the continuously increasing inflation and inflation in Turkey for the last few years. People in Turkey who depend on pensions and government assistance have been demanding better economic conditions, adequate living allowances and respectable pensions for a long time. In the year 2023, when the government revised and increased the salaries of government employees, a large number of retired employees were kept out of that scope, due to which the resentment among them was continuously increasing.
A shocking video of this incident is also going viral on social media. It can be clearly seen in the video that when his colleagues and representatives of various labor unions were preparing to give a joint press statement in front of the media, at the same time Ali Sekeroglu turned towards the people standing nearby and mentioned the plight of his family and the terrible difficulties he was facing in making a living and after a few minutes he took this dreadful step. This incident is proving to be a big warning for the Turkish government.