Al-BaB : Mohammed al-Debek, a schoolteacher in northern Syria, is on strike: The currency devaluation in neighbouring Turkey has slashed the value of his salary by two-thirds.
His town of Al-Bab is located in a northern area of war-torn Syria that in recent years has turned into a de facto Turkish protectorate.
The recent nose dive has heaped more pain on the people living there because of the Turkish lira being the main currency in the area.
My salary in 2017 was worth 160 dollars, but today it is worth 50 dollars, a fraction of its value, the 33-year-old told AFP outside the washed-out yellow walls of his school.
It's barely enough to pay the rent. Ankara does not only have military control over the border region, but most of the products available on the markets and even the mobile phone operator are also Turkish.
Areas of northern Syria run by Turkish-backed rebel groups switched to the lira as the main currency last year, replacing the massively devalued Syrian pound.
The lira has lost 45 per cent of its value against the dollar this year, and Debek's purchasing power has plummeted, as has everyone else in the region.
After the collapse of the lira, I had to look for a second job after school, he said.
His new afternoon job in a bookshop earns him another US $40, but that still leaves him short of the US $200 he says he needs to make ends meet.
Turkey administers several districts of northern Syria, and has invested heavily in education, health, and other sectors to seal its presence in the area.
The economic fate of the region is tied to Turkey's and the lira's fall in recent weeks, which piled more misery on an enclave whose inhabitants are already scarred by war.
A recent UN report on the humanitarian situation cited estimates that 97 per cent of the population, even those in employment, are living in extreme poverty. Inflation is soaring as fast as it is in neighbouring Turkey, with bread selling at record prices and purchasing power at its lowest ever.
When the price of flatbread starts to go up, the amount of bread inside goes down, according to locals.
Ahmed Abu Obeida, an official at the chamber of commerce in the region, said consumption had slumped, as well as a company that imports food products from Turkey.
The demand for basic materials has decreased, and the citizens can't afford basic things such as their daily needs in food, medicine and heating, he told AFP.
Hanaa al-Yasbu, a 36-year-old woman who was widowed in an air strike five years ago, is a 36-year-old woman who has since been living in a camp for war-displaced people.
She usually earns around 20 Turkish lira a day by harvesting wheat and potatoes, enough to keep her five children warm and fed.
With her daily income now worth just a dollar and a half, Hanaa has to venture into the countryside to find firewood.
She said that she dreamed of having about 50 lira a day to buy food for my children, so they do not sleep hungry.