Turkey’s financial troubles continue to spread eastwards, affecting women sellers working in the street bazaars of Diyarbakır (Amed), the Kurdish-majority town which is known as the heartland of the Kurdish region in Turkey.
Women traders in a Diyarbakır bazaar expressed their concerns about the sharp decrease in their sales. The once lively street bazaars in Diyarbakır have been significantly affected by the country’s economic troubles. Jiyan Bazaar in Diyarbakır, where all sellers are women, face serious economic difficulties in the face of the high inflation rate and the pandemic that has been detrimentally affecting markets and businesses in Turkey, especially after the lockdown measures were introduced in the country.
Women sellers of Jiyan Bazaar spoke about the financial distress they face. Fatma Doğan stated that she can hardly sell her goods now that the number of customers has decreased significantly. “If people face financial collapse, so do we. Our business depends on the citizens. The customers have finally hit rock bottom financially, so have we”, she said.
Another trader, Güzel Demir, stated that she cannot sell enough goods to earn enough to prepare dinner for her family. “Everything was cheaper before. With the low prices, we could sell more, but with the sharp rise in prices, our sales have decreased”, she said. “We are just trying to earn what we paid for our goods from the wholesale market hall”, she stated.