Quoted By:
Wikipedia has a list of people who've burnt themselves alive. Most of them are for political reasons, but there are a select few that just come off as bizarre.
This one is some Turkish tea vendor. The reasoning sounds weird at first, but the more interesting part about it is how it's literally a lie. He never even self-immolated. Yet another reminder that Wikipedia isn't a source, I suppose. Anyway.
>A tea maker set himself on fire in front of the Bursa governorship after the police closed the roads to his shop.
Really? Does that warrant self-immolation? It's just a tea shop. You really could've cut your losses and set up a shop somewhere else. Even if it's a place that's important to you, it's simply too much to burn yourself alive over it. Injustice (which this isn't, we'll get to it) happens, and infinitely worse forms of it to way less fortunate people. You should instead move on, as not much will come out of your protests anyway. Even if it's self-immolation. I doubt anyone would resort to doing this unless they poured all their finance into that shop and wouldn't be able to stay afloat if it were gone. Which is simply not his case. In reality, the guy was downright rich.
The reason for his doing is listed as economical issues. Except, he did not really have any. His shop was in such a convenient spot that he sold thousands of cups of tea on the daily. Which means at least 3000 lira every single day, even if he were selling them for the lowest price possible. That alongside other things he sold besides tea. And on top of that, he wasn't paying any kind of rent or tax for this. That makes for an insane amount of money for someone in Turkey, pretty much enough to have him and whatever family he might have set for life, especially considering how long he ran this place for. There definitely weren't any "economical issues" at play.
If you're thinking "yeah, that's a pretty big over-exaggeration" after considering all of that, that's because it is.