Voices of discontent spread in Turkey as energy prices surge

Shopkeepers, city councils and a religious community group spoke out over surging energy bills in Turkey on Tuesday, while doctors held a one-day strike over working conditions as a wave of inflation-fuelled discontent spread across the country. Inflation leaped to near 50% in January, raising the cost of living for Turks already struggling to make ends meet after a currency crash in December sparked by President Tayyip Erdogan's unorthodox low interest rates policy. Turkey's Alevi religious minority decided not to pay power bills for the cemevis where they worship.