The fear of impoverishment is rampant in Turkey – almost 80 percent inflation means that purchasing power is gone.
Well-trained people are leaving the country, and in 2021 more than 1,000 doctors applied to the Turkish Medical Association for a "Good Standing" document in order to be able to practice medicine outside of Turkey.
Hundreds of doctors have already turned their backs on Turkey because their earnings are now moving closer and closer to the poverty line.
dr Onur Naci Karahanci of the Turkish Doctors Association (TTB) says European countries are attracting doctors with a better quality of life in order to secure the smartest and "cheapest" doctors from other parts of the world.
As recently as March, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that doctors who wanted to go abroad "can go and go". He then backtracked and said he believed that doctors who had gone abroad would soon return home because Turkey promised "bright future prospects" economically.
Economist Enes Ozkan from Istanbul University believes that rising inflation in Turkey and the brain drain are directly linked.
One speaks of the so-called "brain drain" when important specialists leave their country in order to practice their profession under better economic or democratic conditions.
Ozkan explained that Turkey's high inflation is due to the Erdogan government's mismanagement of the economy and that other countries suffering from inflation do not experience brain drain.
Annual inflation in Turkey reached 78.62% in June, the highest level since 1998.
Even increases in the minimum wage cannot compensate for the galloping decline in purchasing power. And contrary to all economics, Erdogan is calling for interest rates to be cut to boost growth.
Leave a comment