The pile of debt notices gathering dust on the Ankara district mayor's desk, and the lists of indebted customers kept by store owners, reveal the scale the economic crisis facing Turkish voters months before crucial presidential polls. There are many reasons for this. "The person has either left his home, wife, and children due to economic difficulties" explains Ali Golpinar, the local mayor (mukhtar) of an Ankara district, "or has failed to pay his debts, or gone bankrupt, or had a fight, or committed a crime. Economic reasons underlie all these". The mukhtar, who oversees a working class area of the Turkish capital says the number of notices has doubled in the past two years and now reaches about 40 a day. For store owners, giving credit to customers who are unable to pay has become much harder. "Two years ago, if there were 20 people on credit, it wasn't a problem" says Yuksel Kurt, "now we choose the people... we give credit to those we know, those who are able to pay back." IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES