Youth unemployment poses latest danger to Turkey
Young Turks, especially in Turkey's volatile southeast, are facing an increasingly poor employment outlook, leaving them more susceptible to crime and violence.
Turkey is currently preoccupied with many obvious problems. But there's one up-and-coming issue that deserves immediate attention, as it has the potential to become a major security risk: What happens when young people can't find jobs?
“I only have 150 lira [$40] in my pocket. I can live on that for 10 more days. Before the [government-Kurdish] clashes, I used to work in a restaurant, but now most of the city is in rubble and I have no job,” 21-year-old A.A., who wanted to be identified only by his initials, told Al-Monitor. He had just returned from Mardin to Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish town of Sirnak.
Asked if there is hope for the future, he said, “What hope? We live day to day."
A public official from Cizre — the town most affected by clashes between Turkish security forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) — told Al-Monitor the town is trying hard to find jobs for young people through the state employment agency, but the effort hasn’t been enough.
