Erdogan Rival's Lights Are Turned Off After He Refuses to Pay Increasing Electricity Costs

"This is not an incitement to civil disobedience; this is a call to resist. This is a battle for your civil rights. My battle is to be a voice for the families and children who have been abandoned, "Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Chairman of the Republican People's Party, stated as he sat alongside his wife in their Ankara home lit by a gas lamp.

"My wife and I will be in the dark for a week... I shall sit in the darkness in order to feel my people's anguish "Additionally, he said.

In March, annual inflation increased to 61%. Numerous commentators attribute the economic instability to President Tayyip Erdogan's last-minute interest rate cuts.

Kilicdaroglu said in February that he would cease paying his power bills and urged the government to reverse the price increases.

He noted earlier on Thursday that power rates, which increased by between 50% and 125% at the start of 2022, have increased by more than 400% in three years.

Kilicdaroglu stated that over 4 million Turkish users lost electricity in 2021, without providing a source for the statistic.

Erdogan's popularity has suffered as a result of the inflationary increase in the run-up to the June 2023 national elections, in which Kilicdaroglu is seen as a possible presidential candidate.

Years of double-digit inflation, along with the latest spike, have eaten away at family savings and wages. Shopkeepers, local councils, and a religious community organization have all expressed concern over growing energy costs.

Last year, the lira fell 44 percent versus the dollar, owing mostly to monetary easing that started in September amid growing inflation. Through Turkey's strong reliance on imports, the devaluation fueled inflation.

The easing cycle was part of Erdogan's new economic policy, which seeks to stimulate exports, lending, and investment while also reducing inflation, according to the government.