Harvesting foreclosure in Çanakkale
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Doğan News Agency
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 23, 2008 00:00
Çanakkale - A bank branch in the Bayramiç region of the northwestern province of Çanakkale has posted a list of farms for sale to facilitate the collection of outstanding debts owed by their owners.
The global financial crisis has hit the country’s agricultural industry, which already was in dire straits in recent years.
Bayramiç Foreclosure Department Director Firdevs Kaygınok said in 2007 they began foreclosure proceedings against 325 people in the region and that number had increased to 650 this year.
Most people who faced losing their properties because of outstanding debt were from rural communities, she said, adding there were serious signs of a potentially dramatic increase in the number of these cases in the near future.
The Bayramiç Ziraat Bank branch has lodged foreclosure applications against farmers who cannot pay their loans. It has even posted a list on its window of 11 farms that are available for sale whose owners owe money.
The local Ziraat Bank branch manager Mustafa Şahin confirmed farms were in the process of being repossessed due to unpaid debts to the bank.
The head of the local chamber of agriculture, İsmail Pehlivan, said agricultural produce had not made farmers enough money for the past two years, resulting in their failure to pay bank debts.
"We want a postponement of debt repayments. Zero interest loans were given to small- and medium- size enterprises. We want the same for the agricultural industry," he said. Bayramiç Chamber of Artisans and Tradesmen Chairperson İsmail Yıldırım said there was a depression in the market and their members try to survive by taking out loans. "With the deepening crisis, local tradesmen, whose businesses depend on agriculture, are in very bad shape," he said.
Bayramiç Foreclosure Department Director Firdevs Kaygınok said in 2007 they began foreclosure proceedings against 325 people in the region and that number had increased to 650 this year.
Most people who faced losing their properties because of outstanding debt were from rural communities, she said, adding there were serious signs of a potentially dramatic increase in the number of these cases in the near future.
The Bayramiç Ziraat Bank branch has lodged foreclosure applications against farmers who cannot pay their loans. It has even posted a list on its window of 11 farms that are available for sale whose owners owe money.
The local Ziraat Bank branch manager Mustafa Şahin confirmed farms were in the process of being repossessed due to unpaid debts to the bank.
The head of the local chamber of agriculture, İsmail Pehlivan, said agricultural produce had not made farmers enough money for the past two years, resulting in their failure to pay bank debts.
"We want a postponement of debt repayments. Zero interest loans were given to small- and medium- size enterprises. We want the same for the agricultural industry," he said. Bayramiç Chamber of Artisans and Tradesmen Chairperson İsmail Yıldırım said there was a depression in the market and their members try to survive by taking out loans. "With the deepening crisis, local tradesmen, whose businesses depend on agriculture, are in very bad shape," he said.