At a time when the Turkish lira has fallen to fresh record lows against both the US dollar and the euro, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said the depreciation of the lira was the result of an operation targeting Turkey and there is no difference between a terrorist holding a gun and one having foreign currency.
Speaking at one of his regular meetings with neighborhood heads [muhtars] at his presidential palace in Ankara on Thursday, Erdoğan said: “You all know that the economy is now being used to attack Turkey. There is no difference between a terrorist holding a gun in their hands and a terrorist having dollars, euros or [interest]. [The aim] is to make Turkey deviate from its goals. They are using the foreign exchange rate as a weapon. In the meantime, we certainly have some problems and troubles, but none of them can explain the foreign currency rate getting to this level in our country.”
The lira pushed the limits of TL 4 to the dollar and exceeded TL 4 to the euro on both Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, the lira recovered by 1.2 percent, pulling away from the record lows as the dollar fell 0.7 percent against a basket of currencies.
Already weakened by 6.7 percent against the dollar in the first 10 days of this year alone, the lira generally begins the day as the only depreciating emerging market currency these days.
President Erdoğan earlier called on people to sell off foreign currencies to support the lira.