The bloody coup attempt on July 15 was a real attack on Turkish democracy, which the nation heroically averted. Yet the attempt still had detrimental effects on Turkey, such as initiating an excessive post-coup crackdown. Moreover, it intensified the paranoid political psychology among the ruling elite, in which every problem Turkey faces is seen as yet another nefarious “coup attempt.”

The latest of these endless “coup attempts” is the declining state of the Turkish economy, which is marked by rapid devaluation of the Turkish lira vis-a-vis the US dollar. In the past three years, the value of the US dollar almost doubled, going up from less than 2 Turkish liras to more than 3.5 Turkish liras. This dramatic fall intensified especially in the past three months — in other words, since the coup attempt.

An impartial observer of the Turkish economy could explain this trend with comprehensible factors: The post-coup crackdown and the tension with the European Union reduced the confidence in the Turkish economy, while the global increase in the value of the dollar added to the problem. In fact, there are various economy experts writing in the Turkish media and in Al-Monitor who explain the problem exactly like that: Turkey’s own domestic troubles combined with global trends.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however, prefers a different explanation. In a public speech on Dec. 4, he declared, “Someone is trying to force this country to its knees by economic sabotage after failing to seize it with tanks, guns and F-16s on July 15.” This is not a new game, he added, noting, “Especially in the last three years, they are constantly attempting to use economic crisis as a trump card.”