ISTANBUL (Al Jazeera) – Hasan Dogan says he is not bothered by the cold and rain as he prepares to spend another night in an Istanbul park. The fourth-year graphic design university student and dozens of other students have been sleeping in the streets for four nights, part of a national protest movement against what they say is an unbearable rent crisis in Turkey.
“Whether it’s raining or not, we will stay here until our requests are met, we do not have a place to stay anyway,” he told Al Jazeera.
The student protests, happening nightly in dozens of cities across Turkey, are a sign of a growing cost of living crisis.
Turkey’s economy was in the doldrums before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, with the lira frequently coming under pressure and triggering higher prices for consumers.
Inflation has kept climbing this year, and now even basic needs like housing are being priced out of reach for many.
Dogan says when he started university he paid 750 Turkish lira ($87.7) per month to rent an apartment near his campus, but now rents in the same area are typically above 2,000 lira ($226.4), making it unaffordable for him.
With no space in state-run student dormitories, Dogan says he has no place to live if he wants to return to university as face-to-face classes begin in October for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
The student protest movement, called “We Can’t Shelter” or Barinamyoruz Haraket in Turkish, is asking the government to take measures like limiting rents, building more housing, and offering more subsidies and scholarships for students.
Responding to the criticism over rising prices and protests by university students, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters last week his government was taking action against price gouging, and had built a significant number of dormitories and increased scholarships for students.
While the protests in Istanbul have been met with sympathy – local restaurants have provided dinner and tea – in other parts of the country, students have faced police action and skepticism from authorities.
Earlier this week, nine students were detained in the capital Ankara. On Wednesday night, police detained six more from a park in the city of Eskisehir, and in four other cities, they intervened to force the camping students to disperse.