TurkStat announced the inflation figures for 2025: Annual inflation was recorded as 30.89 percent. With these figures, the fate of millions of retirees in 2026 was also determined on paper.
For the first 6 months of 2026, civil servants and civil servant pensioners will receive an increase of 18.60 percent, while SSK and Bağ-Kur pensioners will receive only 12.19 percent. When these rates land on the field, the picture is much more dire: While the lowest civil servant pensioner salary rises to 27,887 TL, millions of SSK and Bağ-Kur pensioners are condemned to struggle to survive with a figure of 18,938 TL.
However, these figures are just data on paper for pensioners. Even if the virtual rates announced by TÜİK are accepted as real, the real inflation on the streets of the pensioners doubles this figure.
Retired people no longer follow the products whose prices have fallen in the inflation basket; they watch the “label shift” in the markets every morning. We are in a climate where grocery stores employ special “label clerks” to update prices and where labels change almost every day. The pensioner knows the fire in his house better than any institution, because he is not only the data but also the witness of this poverty.
The Injustice of Organizing and the Wound of Seyyan Raise
The gap between civil servant pensioners and SSK and Bağ-Kur pensioners is the most painful proof that democracy is a “regime of organization”. The civil servant pensioner did not benefit from the famous dilyanen increase, which has reached around 20 thousand TL today, despite being under the same union roof with his active working colleagues. Although he suffered a great injustice, he can at least stand on the edge of a “union wind”. On the other hand, millions of SSK and Bağ-Kur pensioners are completely at the mercy of the government as they are not a party to any negotiations.
The Opposition's “Pajama” Lightness
However, the issue is not limited to the government's callousness. How much the opposition understands the plight of pensioners is also a big question mark. Those who call on pensioners to “take off your pajamas and come to the rallies” miss the fact that taking off those pajamas and going out on the streets, getting on a bus or even drinking a cup of tea is now a huge cost.
If there is a government that condemns pensioners to the old pajamas in their homes, there is an opposition that cannot calculate the cost of taking off those pajamas and holds back from concrete rights struggles.
“Non-selection” Revolution at the Ballot Box
Now, between these two pincers, there is only one way for the retired: The democratic right not to choose. If the pensioner is not taken into account in his/her salary demand, if he/she is treated as a “burden” because he/she has no productive power, he/she should use the greatest instrument at his/her disposal. This power is not just to put a stamp on another party. It is the power to say, “I don't see those who don't see me, and I don't see them either” and not go to the polls when the day comes.
This attitude is not only a punishment to the government, but also a warning to the opposition, which plays politics on the backs of pensioners and fails to produce solutions. Pensioners' unions and associations should raise their voices now:
And to those who condemn us to hunger with TÜİK's virtual figures,
And to those who call us to the squares without even knowing the cost of taking off our pajamas,
And NO VOTE for those who usurped our right to a capped raise!
Conclusion
The pensioner is left alone with his salary, which cannot keep up with the speed of the label attendants in the supermarkets. The switch may not be in the hands of the pensioner, but the ballot box is right in front of him. And hidden in that ballot box is not only an “approval” but also a “rejection” will.
The millions who are forced to put on their pajamas and stay indoors must, when the day comes, stage a silent revolution by not going to the polls. Let us not forget that the silence of the ballot box is much more shocking than the noise of the squares.
How do you think this “non-election” attitude of pensioners will shape the political corridors in Ankara? Will the weight of 16 million people's silence at the ballot box be enough to disrupt all the calculations made so far?