Turkey Imports Potato From Turkish-Controlled Parts of Syria

Turkey’s Minister of Agriculture confirmed that Ankara imported nearly 4,000 tons of potatoes from the areas under Turkish control in Syria, stirring a controversy over the state of the country’s agriculture amid soaring prices of basic goods and fruits.

Recently, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci previously acknowledged the import of potatoes from Syria to help reduce its prices hovering around 6 Turkish Liras, a historic rise for the goods.

When faced a question in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa, Food, Agriculture and Livestock Minister Ahmet Esref Fakibaba said it was Zeybekci’s ministry, which bought the potato.

He earlier this week blamed dark hands behind the dramatic rise. “Only two months ago producers complained us about the potato price, which was 50 Turkish cents per kilogram,” the minister said, expressing surprise over the dramatic rise.

There are dark hands behind this rise, he said and vowed to destroy the responsible ones for this. “Turkey’s national interests matters. Syria is a brother country and we also want people there to be enriched, too. Why would we buy from elsewhere while we have Syria here?”

With the imports, Turkish media reported that potato prices were decreased to 2 TL.