Absence of planning main obstacle before Turkey’s development: CHP leader

ANKARA

The reason behind growing unemployment in Turkey is the absence of sound development planning and the presence of politicized education policies, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said, criticizing the government for ignoring remote Anatolian provinces by pursuing an unbalanced investment strategy.

“Everyone would have a job if a production chain was installed, factories were built and valued-added products were manufactured thanks to the creation of a technological infrastructure. But this can happen if there is a planning,” Kılıçdaroğlu told a group of unemployed youth at an online meeting late Oct. 22.

Kılıçdaroğlu listened to the complaints of the jobless youth and responded to their questions at the meeting.

The government is not following a balanced investment strategy and is ignoring Anatolian towns, Kılıçdaroğlu said, adding that this brings about more internal migration. “People go to Istanbul and Ankara with hopes to find a job and not to Kayseri or Erzurum. Why are the investments not made across Turkey in balance?” he asked.

The CHP leader called on the youth to prepare themselves for the 2023 elections and declare that they won’t vote for a party that failed to resolve the unemployment problem in its 18-year rule. “No government can turn a deaf ear to these calls if the people can reflect their will onto the polls,” he suggested.

Planning is also vital for a genuine education policy and the government has failed to produce one, Kılıçdaroğlu told the youngsters. “There is no country where everybody is a university graduate. It’s possible to create employments through a healthy education policy. We are proposing to establish technology high schools to this end.”

He recalled that the government has submitted the 2021 budget of Turkey to parliament but no one questioned where all the money was going to be spent.

“People say ‘I am jobless’ but they don’t question. You will stay jobless because all these moneys will be spent so that you will remain unemployed,” he argued.