In a major concession to young people decrying the ballooning costs of university loans, today President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that the government was cancelling student loan interest, a plan originally suggested by the opposition. 

“We have agreed in the cabinet meeting that you’ll have to pay back the amount you borrowed, nothing more,” Erdogan said in a move interpreted as an effort to win over the young people who make up 13 million of the 62.4 million Turks set to vote next year.

Many young people went online to thank not Erdogan, but main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, with the hashtag #ThankYouKilicdaroglu. The leader of the Republican People’s Party and the likely challenger of Erdogan in the next presidential elections came up with the idea of students just repaying the loan’s principal and not the interest that is ballooning over delays in payment and soaring inflation in Turkey. 

Last week, Kilicdaroglu retweeted a student's complaint that though she had taken a loan of 41,000 Turkish liras ($2,350), the sum she had to pay back has more than tripled to 152,000 liras ($8,700). The minimal salary in Turkey is 5,500 liras ($314), so if a young graduate had a beginner-level job, it will be tough to pay back the loans, as many graduates pointed out. “Do not pay the loan,” Kilicdaroglu said. “Don’t pay off the interest on your loans. Once we are in power, we will only ask you to pay the principal loan and only after you find a job.”