{"id":38136,"date":"2019-03-31T00:22:48","date_gmt":"2019-03-31T00:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38136"},"modified":"2019-03-31T00:22:48","modified_gmt":"2019-03-31T00:22:48","slug":"turkey-will-solve-syria-issue-on-the-field-after-sundays-elections-erdogan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38136","title":{"rendered":"Turkey will solve Syria issue \u2018on the field\u2019 after Sunday\u2019s elections: Erdogan"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"54\">\n<p>\nCAIRO: Egypt\u2019s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Saturday announced that he has raised the minimum wage to 2,000 Egyptian pounds ($115.74) per month from 1,200 ($69.27), a 67 percent increase.<br \/>The move came ahead of a possible national referendum on constitutional amendments that would potentially allow him to remain in power until 2034.<br \/>Egypt\u2019s Parliament, which is packed with El-Sisi supporters, overwhelmingly approved a package of constitutional changes last month that would further enshrine the military\u2019s role in politics. The supposed referendum is expected to be held in the coming weeks.<br \/>El-Sisi said in televised comments the raise will be applied to all Egyptian workers. The move was part of a package of measures, including a raise in pensions and bonuses, intended to ease the burdens of Egyptians hurt by painful austerity measures in recent years. Egypt\u2019s Finance Ministry said the increase would kick in in July.<br \/>The austerity measures were part of an ambitious economic reform program intended to revive the country\u2019s economy mauled by years of political turmoil and violence.<br \/>The reforms included floating the currency, substantial cuts in state subsidies on basic goods, and introducing a wide range of new taxes. The measures led to a significant rise in prices and services, something critics say has hurt the poor and middle class the hardest.<br \/>The reforms were agreed on with the International Monetary Fund in exchange for a $12 billion loan.<br \/>El-Sisi thanked Egyptians, especially women, for enduring the harsh measures. \u201cAnother path would have led to the collapse of the state,\u201d he said in a ceremony honoring Egyptian women.<br \/>Removing state subsidies is something that El-Sisi\u2019s predecessors could not do because of fears of unrest. The late President Anwar Sadat attempted in 1977 to remove subsidies on bread, a main staple for Egyptians, sparking deadly street riots. He backed down. In comparison, El-Sisi\u2019s reforms fueled popular discontent but never boiled over onto the streets.<br \/>Demonstrations are virtually banned in Egypt under a 2013 law, with offenders facing up to five years in prison if convicted.<br \/>The economic reform program has won El-Sisi lavish praise from Egypt\u2019s Western backers and bankers. His policies, however, have made more difficult the plight of a majority of Egyptians who are now forced to cope with steep hikes in the price of everything from utilities and fuel to food and transportation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CAIRO: Egypt\u2019s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Saturday announced that he has raised the minimum wage to 2,000 Egyptian pounds ($115.74) per month from 1,200 ($69.27), a 67 percent increase.The move came ahead of a possible national referendum on constitutional amendments that would potentially allow him to remain in power until 2034.Egypt\u2019s Parliament, which is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":38137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}