 Since the beginning of 2008, the Swiss franc has appreciated nearly 60 percent against and the Japanese yen has gained 62.3 percent against the lira. |
Indebted Turkish homebuyers hit by the rise of Japanese Yen and Swiss Franc protested local lenders in three cities across the country Sunday, claiming that the banks were refusing to restructure their mortgages.
“The officials of the banks that we took the loans from do not even care about our demands,” Ali Çankaya, spokesperson of the group, told the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review during the protest in Istanbul.
Çankaya himself is one of the more than 200,000 people who took home loans fixed to the yen and franc mostly starting from 2007.
“Foreign currency victims” gathered in the three biggest cities, Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir, to launch a protest. According to the protestors, the banks remain deaf to their demands to restructure their debts due to the skyrocketing Japanese yen and Swiss franc.
Only the Turkish government can save them from the ever-increasing debt, said Çankaya. “The banks just enjoy the ill-gotten gains.”
Nearly 40 people gathered in front of the Galatasaray High School, a popular ground for protests, on Istanbul’s central İstiklal Avenue and asked Turkish banks to convert their debts in Turkish Lira.
Noting that the number of people who are affected by the problem reaches almost a million considering the family members, Çankaya said, “We came to the point where we could not afford our installments any more.”
His monthly payments started at 1,300 Turkish Liras, but now with the increased value of the Swiss franc he has to pay 1,900 liras, Cumhur Taş, a “foreign currency victim” who works as a financial expert in Koç Holding, told the Daily News.
Noting that he paid back nearly 65,000 liras of the actual 100,000 liras of debt in the last three years, Taş said, “My remaining debt still totals up to 125,000 liras.”
According to official figures, against the lira the Swiss franc has appreciated nearly 60 percent against and the Japanese yen has gained 62.3 percent since the beginning of 2008.
Tevfik Yılmaz, a sales director at a prominent real estate company, has also found himself in a similar dispute. “The government should act as soon as possible to secure the rights of citizens who used loans fixed to foreign currencies,” he told the Daily News.
Yılmaz called all the foreign exchange victims to gather on online platforms and organize protests, raise their voices and make themselves heard by officials.
The group is preparing to launch a series of meetings with parliamentary members from the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, next week.
“We have lost hope in banks, because they just care about their benefits rather than their customers,” said spokesman Çankaya.
“The officials of the banks that we took the loans from do not even care about our demands,” Ali Çankaya, spokesperson of the group, told the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review during the protest in Istanbul.
Çankaya himself is one of the more than 200,000 people who took home loans fixed to the yen and franc mostly starting from 2007.
“Foreign currency victims” gathered in the three biggest cities, Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir, to launch a protest. According to the protestors, the banks remain deaf to their demands to restructure their debts due to the skyrocketing Japanese yen and Swiss franc.
Only the Turkish government can save them from the ever-increasing debt, said Çankaya. “The banks just enjoy the ill-gotten gains.”
Nearly 40 people gathered in front of the Galatasaray High School, a popular ground for protests, on Istanbul’s central İstiklal Avenue and asked Turkish banks to convert their debts in Turkish Lira.
Noting that the number of people who are affected by the problem reaches almost a million considering the family members, Çankaya said, “We came to the point where we could not afford our installments any more.”
His monthly payments started at 1,300 Turkish Liras, but now with the increased value of the Swiss franc he has to pay 1,900 liras, Cumhur Taş, a “foreign currency victim” who works as a financial expert in Koç Holding, told the Daily News.
Noting that he paid back nearly 65,000 liras of the actual 100,000 liras of debt in the last three years, Taş said, “My remaining debt still totals up to 125,000 liras.”
According to official figures, against the lira the Swiss franc has appreciated nearly 60 percent against and the Japanese yen has gained 62.3 percent since the beginning of 2008.
Tevfik Yılmaz, a sales director at a prominent real estate company, has also found himself in a similar dispute. “The government should act as soon as possible to secure the rights of citizens who used loans fixed to foreign currencies,” he told the Daily News.
Yılmaz called all the foreign exchange victims to gather on online platforms and organize protests, raise their voices and make themselves heard by officials.
The group is preparing to launch a series of meetings with parliamentary members from the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, next week.
“We have lost hope in banks, because they just care about their benefits rather than their customers,” said spokesman Çankaya.
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