Doctors across Turkey started a two-day strike on Thursday, protesting against low pay and poor working conditions as the country grapples with its worst economic turbulence in the past two decades.

Members of the local doctors’ union Hekim-Sen, including family physicians and emergency doctors, stopped work, the union said, sharing images of empty clinic halls from several cities and provinces on social media.

The union also cited heavy workload and increasing physical violence from patients as reasons for strikes.

A total of 316 health workers were targeted in 190 separate attacks in 2021 in Turkey, according to local union Saglik-Sen.

Most Turkish households are struggling to make ends meet amid financial problems, exacerbated by the highest inflation in 20 years and recent hikes on energy, food, and other essential needs.

Earlier on Wednesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan argued that the nearly 50 percent inflation is temporary and that citizens will need to shoulder the burden for some more time.