Zafer Partisi Chairman Ümit Özdağ visited Türk-İş Deputy Chairman and Yol-İş Union Chairman Ramazan Ağar. In a statement issued after the meeting, they reacted to the decision to privatize the bridges and highways for 30 years.
Özdağ said they had assessed the potential consequences of the decision for highway workers, along with the effects of the economic crisis. Saying that the decision was unacceptable, Özdağ argued that the sale was an attempt to generate resources for the election economy. Özdağ said the figures provided by the ministry, which stated that the bridges and highways generate 600 million dollars annually and that 300 million dollars is spent, did not reflect the truth, adding that annual revenue was 826 million dollars and expenditure was 20 million dollars. Özdağ said the lease cost would eventually be passed on to the public through price increases and noted that they would keep the issue on the agenda.
Ağar, meanwhile, announced that he had called the Board of Presidents to an extraordinary meeting over the sale of the highways and that the issue would be discussed tomorrow. Ağar called for the transfer of state highways for 30 years to be reconsidered.
Why it matters
The decision is sparking debate over how publicly owned transport infrastructure should be operated and how the revenue generated from this infrastructure should be used. The objections of privatization opponents are not limited to cost calculations; they also cover the working conditions of highway workers and the possible impact of tolls on citizens. The discrepancy between the ministry’s revenue and expenditure calculations and those of Özdağ shows that the economic justifications for the decision need to be examined in greater detail. The union’s call for the Board of Presidents to convene an extraordinary meeting demonstrates that the issue has been taken up for institutional assessment from the workers’ perspective. The key question that remains open is whether the decision to transfer the roads for 30 years will be reconsidered and which calculation method underlies the financial data presented to the public.
Background
Özdağ is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we published a news report mentioning this name in the last 90 days; that article is dated September 2, 2026.