Millions of disabled people in Turkey are struggling with poverty, unemployment, limited accessibility to public transportation and urban infrastructure and weakening social protections amid the country’s prolonged cost-of-living crisis, disability rights advocates said during Turkey’s annual Disability Week observances.
Speaking to the Cumhuriyet daily during the May 10–16 awareness week, Serhat Gökpınar, vice president of the Confederation of the Disabled, an umbrella disability rights organization, warned that recent policy debates are putting long-established rights at risk.
Gökpınar said disabled workers who entered Turkey’s social security system before a major pension reform in 2008 are facing growing uncertainty over their right to early retirement. Prior to the reform, some disabled workers qualified for earlier retirement through officially recognized disability certificates linked to tax reductions.
He criticized efforts to require some recipients to undergo new medical evaluations despite previously being approved under state rules.
“Disabled individuals who worked for years according to rules set by the state, paid their premiums and planned their lives accordingly are now being sent back to medical review boards,” Gökpınar said. “This means acquired rights are being reopened for debate.”
Turkey’s 2008 social security overhaul created different retirement systems depending on when workers entered the labor force, a distinction disability advocates say has produced unequal treatment for people with similar disabilities.
The concerns come as many households in Turkey continue to struggle with high inflation and a rising cost of living following years of economic instability. Gökpınar said disability pensions remain below the hunger threshold calculated by labor unions and economists, while state payments for at-home caregivers no longer reflect real living expenses.
Turkey provides financial support to some family members caring for severely disabled relatives at home, but advocacy groups say the payments are insufficient and caregivers — many of them mothers — still lack adequate retirement protections despite years of unpaid care work.
Gökpınar also criticized discussions around limiting tax exemptions available to disabled citizens purchasing vehicles. Under Turkish law, some disabled people are exempt from paying the Special Consumption Tax, (ÖTV), a major tax imposed on automobiles and certain other goods.
“What needs to be done is not restricting rights but strengthening oversight,” he said, referring to concerns about misuse of the exemption system.