ISTANBUL: Turkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ankara on Tuesday, as Kyiv seeks to shore up its position in response to US-Russia talks.
Zelensky flew into the Turkish capital from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) late on Monday, saying on Telegram he would discuss prisoner exchanges and other issues with Erdogan.
The talks at Erdogan’s presidential palace, which began around 1115 GMT, came several hours after top US and Russian diplomats met in Saudi Arabia for their first high-level talks since Moscow invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago.
Top Erdogan aide Fahrettin Altun on Monday said the pair would discuss how to “further strengthen cooperation” between their two nations.
NATO member Turkiye has sought to maintain good relations with its warring Black Sea neighbors, with Erdogan pitching himself as a key go-between and possible peacemaker between the two.
Ankara has provided drones for Ukraine but shied away from Western-led sanctions on Moscow.
Alongside Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Turkiye has played a role in brokering several prisoner swap deals between Russia and Ukraine which have seen hundreds of prisoners returning home despite the ongoing conflict.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Riyadh with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as part of what the Kremlin says is a bid to re-open ties with Washington.
US and Russian officials are eyeing a summit between their two leaders.
Zelensky meets Turkiye’s Erdogan amid US shift on Ukraine
https://arab.news/8jz86
Zelensky meets Turkiye’s Erdogan amid US shift on Ukraine
- Volodymyr Zelensky flew into the Turkish capital from the UAE late on Monday
- Kyiv seeks to shore up its position in response to US-Russia talks
’We can’t make ends meet’: civil servants protest in Ankara
- Some 800 civil servants from the Confederation of Public Employees’ Unions joined a march to the labor ministry
- “The increase in rents is almost three times higher than the pay rise we received,” Kocak told demonstrators
ANKARA: Hundreds of angry civil servants marched through Ankara Wednesday demanding a realistic pay rise as they battle poverty amid the soaring prices and double-digit inflation.
Some 800 civil servants from the Confederation of Public Employees’ Unions (KESK) joined a march to the labor ministry in the Turkish capital, carrying banners demanding an immediate pay rise.
“The increase in rents is almost three times higher than the pay rise we received, meaning our salaries are not even enough to cover the rent increases alone,” Ayfer Kocak, KESK’s co-chair, told demonstrators outside the ministry.
“We are experiencing growing poverty and insecurity.”
Turkiye’s annual inflation rate fell to 30.89 percent in December from 44.38 percent a year earlier, official figures showed, but independent economists and unions say real numbers remain much higher.
According to December figures released by the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (TURK-IS), the absolute minimum needed to feed a family of four was just over 30,000 liras ($690).
At the same time, Turkiye’s poverty threshold — the sum required to cover the basic needs for a family of that size — had risen to 98,000 liras ($2,270), it said.
Food inflation approached 43 percent annually, it added.
- ‘We can’t make ends meet’ -
“The government is condemning civil servants to live in degrading conditions by relying on misleading data” from the official statistics agency TUIK, Tulay Yildirim, head of a local teachers’ union branch, told AFP.
“We workers’ voices to be heard, saying we can no longer make ends meet and want to receive our fair share of a budget created through taxes paid by all citizens,” she added.
Earlier this month, public sector wages were hiked by 18.6 percent for the next six months, an increase unions said was insufficient.
“There are not only workers here, but also pensioners. The salary increase granted falls below the poverty line,” said Osman Seheri, head of a local branch of the municipal workers’ union.
“We cannot even afford proper clothes to go to work, let alone a suit and tie. With such wages, it is impossible to live in a major city.”
According to the independent Inflation Research Group (ENAG), which challenges the official data, annual inflation in Turkiye reached 56.14 percent in December 2025, with prices rising 2.11 percent in December alone.
