As the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared ‘a war of economic liberation’ and accused foreign powers for the currency fluctuations as well as rising inflation, the Turkish Lira suffered yet another dramatic collapse within hours.
“We see the tricks played through currency, interest rates and price increases by those who are trying to leave our country out of the equation like they have always done before. We see this, and affirm our will to go on with our own game plans,” he said on Tuesday.
“Just like we have saved our country from all the traps and dangers before, we’ll triumph in this war of economic liberation with God’s help and our nation’s support.”
The US Dollar which was worth 11.42 TL at 7am local time on Tuesday jumped to 12.19 TL by noon, appreciating 6.7 percent against Turkish local currency within just five hours. The Euro that was worth 12.84 TL at 7am, jumped to 13.72 TL by noon, appreciating by 6.8 percent.
The depreciation of TL in the last four days has been even more dramatic, as it declined from 10.95 TL against the dollar on 19 November to 12.19 TL on the 23rd, losing more than 11 percent of value.
The TL was in a new kind of free fall as Erdoğan spoke brushing aside the possibility of an early election in his parliamentary group address on Tuesday afternoon and harshly accused all the opposition parties.
“We can’t surrender the country to the inadequacy of Kılıçdaroğlu who knows nothing except ruining, blemishing and plotting,” he said, referring to the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
He then continued, accusing both the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and Iyi Party, an official of which recently caused a scandal as he publicly swore at a relative of someone allegedly killed in 1997 by a mortar during clashes in Turkey’s southeastern province of Bingöl:
“And neither we can surrender the country to the People’s Democratic Party who’s under the influence of the separatist organisation, or to those insolents who have no talent except insulting the families of the martyrs.”
