Statement from the Ministry on Minister Bolat’s ‘Afghan Shepherds’ remarks

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Lerato Khumalo

The following information was included in the statement made by the Ministry:

“It has been observed that the words of our Minister of Trade to a journalist on the phone, stating that the price of lemons could not be collected due to a shortage of personnel and emphasizing the need to find personnel in agriculture and animal husbandry, especially during harvest time, were distorted and served for operational purposes through bot accounts on social media 15 hours after they were published in the newspaper.

With the determined struggle of our security forces in our Eastern and Southeastern regions, the effect of terrorism has been eliminated and the regional economy has been revived with agriculture and animal husbandry.

Those who are engaged in animal husbandry activities in many provinces, especially in our Eastern Regions, frequently express that they need shepherds and that they can only fill this gap with Afghan shepherds because they cannot find any personnel.

This information was also stated in the statement of our Minister. It is underlined that this situation affects the market.

A sociological determination has been made entirely regarding the market mechanism, and the sentence containing the determinations regarding the employment of shepherds is consciously and deliberately distorted.

Those who try to cover up the work that is being done day and night for the welfare and well-being of our country and our people with the tactic of picking words and taking them out of context and exploiting them are in vain.”

The statement said that Bolat will meet with his counterparts in the EU Commission in Brussels and attend the Turkey-EU high-level trade dialogue meetings.