It is a bitterly cold winter day in the central Anatolian city of Tokat. The thermometer reads -3 °C (27 °F). Sunduz Akkan, a mother of three, bundles up and heads to the Sik Makas factory where she worked until October.
The plant’s roughly 1,700 employees stopped receiving paychecks in mid‑2025. On October 7 workers went on strike. The next day, about 1,000 Sik Makas employees received text messages informing them they had been dismissed.
Akkan and her colleagues have been protesting at the factory gates ever since, camping in a solidarity tent to draw attention to their situation. Their pressure produced partial wins: in January they finally received back pay, and they secured corrections to their work records removing the notation “Code 22″—a catch‑all “other reasons” tag that would have made them ineligible for unemployment or severance benefits. The ex‑employees are still fighting, however, to obtain severance pay.
“I worked here for over three years,” Akkan says. “Now we’re being treated like beggars, even though we’re just asking for what we’re entitled to.”
Pressure to perform in precarious conditions
Buse Kara, a spokesperson for the group and one of those fired in October, was later investigated for allegedly insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and spent 16 days under house arrest before returning to the protests. She describes workplace harassment and intense pressure to boost productivity. Management recently limited toilet breaks to five minutes and prayer breaks to 10. “We weren’t allowed to see a nurse unless we were passed out or writhing in pain,” she says.
Sik Makas denied the accusations in response to requests for comment, saying its actions complied with Turkish law and labour regulations.
Founded in 1939, Sik Makas is among Turkey’s 500 largest industrial firms and says it exports about 20 million denim items yearly, mainly to Europe. Brands such as H&M, Jack & Jones, Levi’s, Only and Zara have produced goods there, and the company also markets its own Cross Jeans label in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and elsewhere. Yet Turkey’s soaring inflation and high interest rates have squeezed the company, and like many competitors it has shifted some production to Egypt where costs are lower.
A structural crisis in a key industry
Textiles and clothing have long been pillars of the Turkish economy, supporting hundreds of thousands of families. Official statistics put sector employment at about 1.1 million, though unions argue that figure omits many refugees, women and children working off the books.
Mehmet Turkmen, leader of the BIRTEK‑SEN union, notes that jobs in the industry are largely at or near minimum wage, leaving monthly incomes below the poverty line for a family of four (roughly €650 / $776). Unpaid overtime and working holidays are commonplace. Turkmen criticises companies relocating to rural areas to benefit from government incentives and to push down wages further amid local unemployment.
Massive market share loss in the EU
The raw numbers illustrate the sector’s deepening crisis: some 380,000 jobs lost over the past three years and 4,500 companies shutting down in 2025 alone. The most alarming declines are in the sector’s most important market, the European Union.
Turkish exports to the EU have collapsed while imports from China and Bangladesh surged. The Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters Association (ITHIB) reports EU imports of Chinese goods rose 21.8% between January and May 2025, and imports from Bangladesh rose 17.9%. In the same period, imports from Turkey fell by 5.1%.
Of the EU’s ten largest suppliers, only Turkey and Tunisia lost market share. With more than 60% of Turkey’s clothing production destined for the EU single market, that decline is existential. The year 2025 marked the first time in 30 years that Turkey’s share of the EU clothing and textile market fell below 5%, and the first time in 35 years its global market share dropped below 3%.
Pessimistic outlook
Seref Fayat, head of apparel and ready‑wear assembly at the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), sees no recovery while the government intervenes to prop up the lira. President Erdogan has pledged to raise state subsidies in the sector to 3,500 lira per worker (about €69) and to take measures to freeze layoffs and encourage hiring, but employers say that is insufficient.
Mustafa Pasahan, vice president of the Istanbul Apparel Exporters Association (IHKIB), warns urgently: “We have hit bottom. Our strength has run out.” ITHIB chair Jak Eskinazi is even sharper, criticising the government’s political course as destructive to the industry. “We no longer expect anything from them. We’re just trying to save ourselves,” he says.
This article was originally published in German.