‘Prices change daily and we are all scared'

Erdoğan's unrealistic policies are behind spiralling inflation, but fallout from Ukraine is pushing Turkey towards a cost-of-living crisis

- Ruth Michaelson and Deniz Barış Narlı

From behind the counter of a bakery in Kasımpaşa, a working-class neighbourhood in Istanbul, Mustafa Kafadar can see the orange, white and blue banners of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling party as they blow in the spring breeze.

Kafadar has been wrenched out of retirement by Turkey's economic crisis - his pension is no longer enough to cover his basic expenses. He works shifts at the bakery, where he describes living from payday to payday while he sweeps crumbs off a tray.

"Everything's very expensive. After I buy my essentials and pay my bills, there's nothing left," he said.

Asked who was responsible, he chuckled. "You know who makes inflation high,” he said cryptically, reluctant to voice his opinion of Erdoğan's economic policies directly. “Not me, not you, not someone on the street but who?” Kafadar has requested that his name be changed for his safety.

Turkey is weathering an unprecedented financial crisis. After the lira lost halfits value last year, the country is struggling with rocketing inflation, officially 61.14%.

Kafadar arranges rows of delicate breakfast pastries - fluffy round açma filled with olives or chocolate, börek and glossy poğaçabuns-as customers arrive. He tells me they sometimes fly into a rage with him about prices. Jars of pink and white sugared almonds and a counter of elegant layer cakes, decorated with fruit and chocolate, sit untouched, now too pricey for most.

“Sugar and wheat prices have gone up. A kilogram bag of flour was 110 lira ($7.50) back in January; now it's 220 lira," he said.

When Turkey's official inflation rate broke 50% in February, it represented both a two-decade high and a huge political problem for the government.