Erdoğan: Currency speculators trying to bring down Turkish economy

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has claimed Turkey’s struggling economy is under attack from foreign exchange speculators, while also praising citizens who have converted their foreign currencies into liras.

“They are trying to destroy our economy through foreign exchange speculation. Are there no problems with our economy? Yes, there are. But our government has been taking the required measures and will continue to do so,” Erdoğan said in a speech to neighborhood leaders in the presidential palace in Ankara on Dec. 7.

He noted that he saw “no economic reason” for the Turkish Lira’s recent plunge, after the lira lost as much as one fifth of its value against the U.S. dollar this year before rebounding slightly on Dec. 6.

Casting recent weakness in the Turkish currency as a plot by outside powers to destroy the economy, Erdoğan has repeatedly called for Turkish citizens to convert any dollars under their mattresses into liras or gold, while urging businesses to conduct more transactions in the local currency.

Turkey has lost 2.5 billion dollars in cash in one month: CHP

Some $2.5 billion is cash alone has flown out of Turkey in less than a month, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Chair Selin Sayek Böke has said, criticizing the government for creating “structural problems” with its draconian state of emergency decrees.

“The net outflow of cash since the beginning of November alone is $2.5 billion,” Böke said on Dec. 7, speaking after her party’s central executive board meeting.

She also rejected President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s claim that Turkey was being targeted in an economic war by shady outside forces, saying the government’s state of emergency decrees after the failed July 15 coup attempt had created “structural problems” that paved the way for economic strife.

“In the process that started with the extension of the state of emergency, the discussions on presidential system shift, and the deterioration of relations with the EU, the Turkish Lira became one of four currencies that have lost the most value,” Böke said.

“In addition to structural problems, there are political problems in Turkey. With the state of emergency, democracy has been abolished. The law has been destroyed by decree laws … For the sake of its own political power, the government is engaging in fights with the whole world. Political risks are leading Turkey to break away from the world,” she added.