Correspondent Mitra Nazar on the fall of the lira
President Erdogan asks people to trust him and be patient. Turkey will come out of this better, is the message. The lira’s plunge is the fault of foreign exchange traders, he says. Earlier he talked about an international interest rate lobby that is trying to destroy Turkey. In other words, the debt lies abroad.
While everyone agrees that life gets harder by the day, there are two extreme reactions. Opponents of Erdogan see this as confirmation of economic mismanagement they have seen for years. It is seen as a result of Erdogan’s authoritarian leadership. That a climate has arisen in which no one dares to contradict him anymore. There is a lot of anger, even among people who otherwise would not speak out so quickly politically. This is about money, and it affects everyone.
Loyal Erdogan supporters trust that things will get better and that the president has a plan. There is the thought that there are ups and downs, and that one should now bite the bullet. People often point to other countries, where inflation is also high. When there were problems with the petrol supply in England, it was said here on state television that it is much worse there. The question is, of course, how long those people will continue to wait quietly, while their salary and savings continue to evaporate by the day.
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