Tülay Hatimoğulları stated that poverty and hunger are not their fate. The visit took place as part of the campaign. DEM Party Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları visited shopkeepers in Istanbul’s Sancaktepe district as part of the “Budget for Bread, Peace and Justice” campaign and then spoke at the district headquarters. Noting that the campaign will continue for weeks, Hatimoğulları said they aim to bring the people’s demands to the parliamentary agenda and that the struggle will not be confined to parliament.
Hatimoğulları, who argued that nearly 50 million people in Turkey live below the hunger and poverty line, said, “Poverty is not our destiny, hunger is not our destiny.” She also described this picture. She explained that civil servants, too, cannot make ends meet. She said some families in Istanbul live in the same house in order to share the rent. She noted that mothers cannot put milk in their children’s lunch boxes. She claimed that military spending in the budget has been increased by 60 percent. She demanded that resources be allocated to workers. She also requested that resources be allocated to farmers and retirees, as well as to health and education. She described the fund crisis as “organized crime.” She relayed the complaints of the mother buying vegetables half a kilo at a time at the market and the woman selling socks on the street.
Why it matters
Hatimoğulları’s visit to Sancaktepe shows the DEM Party’s intention to spend the budget period not only with negotiations in Parliament but with a field organization that will last for weeks. This framework positions tradespeople, workers, civil servants, and retirees complaining about the cost of living as the party’s direct interlocutors; the examples conveyed through milk, rent, and market shopping also reflect an effort to politicize the crisis through everyday life rather than statistics. The claim of poverty affecting nearly 50 million people and the figure of a 60 percent increase in military spending voiced in the speech belong to the speaker; unless they pass independent verification, these numbers will remain campaign arguments. The characterization of the fund crisis as organized crime, meanwhile, carries the criticism from economic grievance onto the plane of a legal claim. The campaign’s real test will be whether the demands gathered on the street are transformed into concrete budget proposals in Parliament.
Background
Hatimoğulları is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 3 news stories featuring this name in the last 90 days; the most recent is dated October 24, 2026.